


Entangled

by Milkfish11



Category: BLACKPINK (Band), iKON (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Destiny, Fate & Destiny, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, LuckandChance, M/M, Physics, Roommates, Science, chance, luck, yunbin, yunbob
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:20:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24447241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milkfish11/pseuds/Milkfish11
Summary: YUNBOB X YUNBIN AUIn just one fateful Friday, Yunyhyeong’s life turned upside down with series of unfortunate events leading him to a decision to take a break and reevaluate his life. So he packed up his bag, determined to make a trip to some faraway mountain his fresh start. But instead of getting his shits straightened out, the universe had other ideas, from him getting wasted and sleeping with a stranger to him taking care of a man he found in the mountain.And he thought his life couldn’t get more messed up..
Relationships: Kim Hanbin | B.I/Song Yunhyeong, Kim Jiwon | Bobby/Song Yunheong
Comments: 27
Kudos: 27





	1. The First Law

Entangled I – The First Law

~0~

_ The First Law states, a body at rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless it is acted upon by an external force. _

~0~

Yunhyeong navigated ungracefully in the chaos of gyrating bodies of the club’s dance floor. The loud, dizzying and booming bass sends a tremble on his chest and made his ears tingle in slight pain. How so many people enjoy this kind of scene was still a great mystery to Yunhyeong who prefer his version of Friday night out in a cozy café far away from the busy district of Gangnam. It wasn’t his scene, yes, however Yunhyeong had a very legitimate and pressing reason to be there this time.

After a few twist, turns and a little spilled martini on his unkempt dress shirt, Yunhyeong has finally shimmied himself out of mob of club goers. His eyes made a quick scan at tables at the far end of the room until Yunhyeong zeroed out where his small group of friends sat. With little to no hesitation at all, he marched down with one red-hot intention on his mind as the toll of his very eventful Friday weighing him down. Yunhyeong’s going to get wasted tonight.

“Give me that!” 

Yunhyeong snatched the shot of vodka away from Junhoe’s grasp, chugged it in one go and plopped down next to the empty spot next to the only girl in their circle, Jisoo. There was passing silence as his group of friends namely, Junhoe, Jisoo and Donghyuk looked at him oddly shocked for him being there but no one dared to say a thing.

“What?” Yunhyeong shrugged too innocently even to his liking as the eye communication between his friends unfold in front of him. He knew they will inevitably squeeze him dry for information later on this evening but right now, Yunhyeong couldn’t care less. He just wanted to be intoxicated as soon as possible.

A couple of drinks flew by out the window faster than Yunhyeong had preferred and on his eighth shot could already feel the slight buzz of alcohol pounding on his head. Or was it his ninth? Well, it doesn’t matter. This was what he came here for. Yunhyeong was getting ready to gulped down another glass when Jisoo’s red-manicured hand swiftly snatched the drink from his hand.

“Ya! That’s my drink!”

Jisoo dismissed his protest with a languid wave of her hand. “Before things get out of hand,” she passed on the shot glass to Junhoe to her left. She crossed her legs and furrowed her perfectly lined eyebrows in a perfect villain-esque manner. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What? Nothing’s wrong. I’m just enjoying our usual Friday night out!”

But Jisoo didn’t take any of that. She gave Yunhyeong a dry knowing look. This was one of the cons of having a best friend that you grew up with. She could easily see through his bluff so well. “You mean ‘our’ usual Friday night out. You almost never graced us with your presence especially when we are out in a club, your majesty. I still remember you preaching about how a club is just, and I quote, a children’s party with no parental guidance gone wild, full of slutty clothing, fishnets and sweaty grinding, unquote.”

“Technically, Yunhyeong hyung is not wrong,” Junhoe mumbled after taking a sip from the glass that was handed over to him, earning him a glare from Jisoo.

“Just drink Junhoe.”

“Well, we can just say that this is my way of making up for the times that I did not join you guys.” Yunhyeong let out a goofy grin, his face now a little red. “Now gimme back my drink.” He leaned in to the table as he reached out for the shot glass but Jisoo was quick to swat his hand off.

“Hyung, it’s not that we don’t want you here but Jisoo noona is right. Shouldn’t you be with Daisy-ssi right now?” Donghyuk asked, a hint of concern on his voice.

“Who’s Daisy?”

Jisoo and Donghyuk shook their heads in exasperation.

“Yunhyeong’s girlfriend. They’ve been dating for three months. You should’ve known her name by now, Junhoe-ya.”

“Well, don’t bother Junhoe because we’re over.”

The three of them exchanged half-curious, half shocked glances.

Jisoo leaned in, clearly interested. “By ‘over’, you mean, you two broke up, right?”

“But… why hyung? The two of you were getting along so really well, seeing that you were always together.”

“What Donghyuk meant was, you always ditched us for whatever her name is.” There was no bitterness on Junhoe’s voice but having his friends think like that still make Yunhyeong frown.

“I guess I’m stuck again with you guys…” Yunhyeong intoned, smiling at his three friends on his half drunken state before he paused as he realized that someone was missing on their small circle, “Huh, where’s Chanwoo?”

“He’ll be here in a few,” Jisoo answered dismissively. Clasping her hands in a business-like manner, she smirked. She was definitely enjoying this. “So, going back to the topic, why did you guys call it quits?”

Yunhyeong sighed. Here it comes. “I need a drink.”

Jisoo snapped her fingers and a shot glass half-full of alcohol found its way to Yunhyeong’s waiting hand. “Oooh, I have a feeling that this would be epic.”

“She called it quits.” The bitter and burning trace of vodka on Yunhyeong’s throat could also be heard on his words. “I didn’t have a say on it. Well, I couldn’t have a say on it anyway even if I wanted too.”

The other three looked piqued by that cryptic message.

Junhoe let out an annoyed sigh. “Just spit it out, hyung.”

“She said she’s a lesbian.”

“What!?” Donghyuk.

“I knew it.” Jisoo.

“Damn.” Junhoe.

Their reaction were simultaneous and so comical that Yunhyeong almost laughed. Almost. 

“That means you two owe me ten bucks.” Jisoo announced triumphantly as she gave the other two a smug look.

“Didn’t we called off the bet after the two month mark,” Junhoe pointed out.

“Details. A bet is a bet and I won. Pay up, losers!” Jisoo’s slender hand flew out across the table in front of their dongsaengs in beckoning manner. Junhoe fished out a crumpled ten dollar bill on his pocket and begrudgingly hand it over to Jisoo’s waiting hand whereas Donghyuk just chuckled but still did the same.

“Guys, really?” Yunhyeong whined as his shocked eyes scanned over his shameless friends faces. “I was expecting some half-hearted consoling. I just broke up with my girlfriend because she’s apparently bats for the same team and my friends just betted on us behind our backs?”

“Well, technically, we didn’t bet about your relationship, hyung,” Donghyuk said in an amused tone, masking his smile behind small sips of his drink.

Junhoe nodded in agreement. “And the bet’s nothing to do with you too.”

“We bet on girlfriend’s questionable inclinations or if we wanted to be specific, her latent homosexual tendencies. Which apparently not so latent anymore.” 

“That doesn’t make me feel any better. Really, a bet? That’s so high school.” Yunhyeong rolled his eyes. Although his brain was already soaked in alcohol, he still could not believe that his friends did such childish things. Come to think of it, Yunhyeong was always on the receiving end of their pranks and jokes. Why did he ever decided to be friends with them again?

Jisoo shrugs and grinned at him like it was nothing. “It’s fun. Betting is fun. Life’s a gamble and all that shit.” She leaned back in a condescending manner as she always do when she just won a case. You see, Jisoo works as a lawyer, a good one at that, which no one would ever guess since she’s so beautiful enough to be an idol. Well, screw stereotypes, Jisoo always said. “This also proves that my instinct never really stirred me wrong. I always knew that girl had some unconventional predisposition with the way her eyes linger on me.”

“Yet you guys never told me? I really like her, you know.” Yunhyeong did not want to sound so pathetic but he could not help it now that the alcohol had him loosening up. They were not dating for a long time but Yunhyeong genuinely enjoy their time together and that’s why he never saw this coming. No matter how much he tried to maintain a level head or act cool when his girlfriend broke up with him a while ago, he was still hurt and somehow felt betrayed even though Yunhyeong knew that no one was at fault. We can’t help what we feel just as we can’t choose who we fall for, right? But damn…

A guilt-filled silence against the chest thumping music dawned on their table. Yunhyeong felt a little victorious seeing that his friends had at least some decency to look ashamed.

“We’re sorry about that, hyung,” Donghyuk offered an empathic smile after a moment. He reached out and poured Yunhyeong a drink.

Yunhyeong grunted and run his hand through his hair. “What’s done is done so apology accepted, I guess,” he said with an appreciative smile at Donghyuk’s direction.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jisoo flailed her hands in a dramatic ‘stop’ gesture giving Yunhyeong an annoyed glare. “Don’t tell me you also accepted that girl’s apology just like that?”

Yunhyeong only blinked innocently at Jisoo.

“I guess that’s how it turned out, noona,” Junhoe mumbled.

“Ya! Song Yunhyeong! You fool!” Jisoo screeched angrily Yunhyeong smacking him at his arm. “You should’ve lashed her out! She used you to test her sexuality, you know that right?”

“Geez, woman! That hurts!”

Jisoo narrowed her eyes at him and breathe out aggravatingly. “Please tell me that you at least got mad at her.”

Yunhyeong stared at his best friend briefly before he lowered his gaze down the table with a pained smile. “Of course, I did. Well, actually I still feel a little angry right now. I really… like her. So, it’s normal that I feel angry, right? But getting mad at her or lashing her out won’t change anything. Daisy… she said she really tried. She tried really hard and I guess she really did. I… I’m truly happy with all the times we spent together even though we haven’t been dating for that long. She said that she was happy and that she really like me too but it’s just that we liked each other differently.”

The silence that followed after that long spiel was long but it was not the most uncomfortable at all and he never thought how much he needed a quiet time like that. Even though they never said anything after, the unspoken concern and understanding look across his friends’ faces were enough for Yunhyeong.

“I really hate that you’re such a good guy,” Jisoo broke off the spell with a roll of her eyes as she slumped back on her seat. “That’s why people always took advantage of you.”

“Just like you guys do?”

The laughter that came after that was pleasant to hear despite the unpleasant background noise. It was the first genuine laugh Yunhyeong had today. They were his friend for reason after all.

“So, hyung…” Junhoe drawled after a gulping down the drink he was holding. “I’m glad that it was not because of the sex.”

“What!?” Yunhyeong spurted out, spraying alcohol on his messy and crumpled shirt. He ignored the gross look that Jisoo shot him at the corner of his eyes and stared confusedly at Junhoe.

“I really thought that your girlfriend broke up with you because the sex was bad,” Junhoe answered calmly like it was no big deal at all.

“N-no! How did you come up with that? And It wasn’t bad!” Yunhyeong protested, sounding far too defensive than he needed to. His eyes scanned over his friends as if looking at them would be convincing enough. “The sex was just fine!”

“You said that Daisy tried really hard, what about you? Did little Yunhyeong-ie try _hard_ too?” 

The R-rated implication was not lost to Yunhyeong. “Ya! I told you it was good! Daisy can vouch for that,” he scoffed at Jisoo on his drunken haze

The chorus of Big Bang’s Bang Bang Bang beat dropped on the background as Yunhyeong’s friends burst out a raucous laughter, body trembling with the booming bass.

“You- you really asked her about that, hyung?” Donghyuk wheezed between his laugh, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Uh, I had to make sure.” Yunhyeong grumbled, shifting uncomfortably on his sit.

Well, that was the truth. It was not every day that your girlfriend of three months would just meet you on your favorite café and smacked him with a news that she swing the other way. So, of course, after blinking dumbly and mumbling incoherent words on one of the greatest anime betrayal he experienced, Yunhyeong’s first intelligible thought was to ask why and how did that happen. Because Yunhyeong never saw a sign or suspect in any way. They even had sex for Pete’s sake and it was good (at least to Yunhyeong) and it would be huge blow to his pride and masculinity that Daisy thought it sucked so bad that she decided to switch side. Yunhyeong still remember the relief that washed his body when Daisy said it’s not about that.

“But that doesn’t mean she’s telling the truth, you know?”

“Of course she’s telling the truth! She’s a lesbian, not a liar!” Yunhyeong snapped irritatingly at Jisoo’s remark despite the flawed logic which just instigated another round of laughter. He sounded too defensive even to himself but, hey, when his sexual performance is on the line he had to come off strong.

“Does this mean we’ll be seeing you more often every Friday, hyung?”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Dong-ie. Yunhyeong hyung will surely revert back to reclusion with his boring ass job.” Junhoe rolled his eyes, waving his glass holding hand dismissively causing alcohol spill all over the place.

“Why are you still in that company?” Jisoo grossed out.

_ Here we go again,  _ Yunhyeong sighed under his breath. He wasn’t sure if this topic is much better than his performance in bed. Ever since that his friends knew that he worked on a desk job in the marketing department of some no-name company located at the shady outskirts of Seoul , they have been hounding him for every opportunity they can get to high-tail it out there. _Your company is crappy. Your boss is an asshole. Your co-workers are jerks. If you stay there, your career is going nowhere._ Yunhyeong could go on and on. He can swear that he already heard all the forms of discouragement from them just to make him resign. Not that they were wrong. Truth to be told, all the things they said were nothing but the truth but Yunhyeong still could not just leave his job recklessly, not because he liked it there but because the company took him when no one else did and it was not like he could just snatch a high paying job from a good company with his mediocre work experience and a mere diploma in business. More importantly, at least it was enough to pay his bills.

“Guys, are we doing this again?”

“I just don’t understand why are you wasting your time with that kind of job?” Jisoo piped off-handedly. “You’ve very capable of getting a better deal from a better company.”

_ Waste his time? _

Yunhyeong blinked in shock at his best friend. He knew long time ago how brutal and loose-tongued Jisoo can be but this was the first time Yunhyeong was hurt by those words after being forced to hear it countless of times. Perhaps it was the alcohol or something else but Yunhyeong felt he needed to bite back. He emptied the drink he was holding in a single gulp and glared at Jisoo.

“And I don’t understand why do you guys want me to resign so badly!?” Yunhyeong snapped irritatedly.

“Well…for starters…” Jisoo drawled out after recovering from her initial shock. “You—”

“Is it really that bad if I stay there?” Yunhyeong cut Jisoo off. He poured another one to his glass and chugged in one go.

Junhoe shoot a worried glance at Jisoo and Donghyuk before turning to Yunhyeong reaching out to his glass. “Hyung, aren’t you drinking too much? ”

“Is it really bad to have a crappy job?” Yunhyeong brushed off Junhoe’s hand and drunkenly glared at Jisoo. “Just because I’m unlucky enough to be on the short end of the stick unlike you guys with your fancy jobs and high paychecks doesn’t mean you have the right to tell me what to do!”

“It’s because you’re so afraid of taking risks.” Donghyuk butted in, surprising everyone. “Not because you’re unlucky, hyung.”

“What!?”

“We have this ‘fancy jobs and high pay checks’ because we went for it. We took risk to go after it even if we know there’s a high chance of failing.” Donghyuk’s steady voice permeated over the boisterous background noise. He put down his glass and look straight to Yunhyeong. “You settled for that job no matter how crappy it gets because you’re comfortable enough with it and it was good enough to pay the bills. It was enough for you.”

Yunhyeong could not exactly explain what he felt after hearing what Donghyuk had just said because out of all his friends Donghyuk will be the last person he would expect to hear it from. Yunhyeong put down his glass with a trembling hands. His body is shaking with suppressed anger, regret on his poor life choices and at least twelve-thirteen shots of vodka.

“Is putting down my job not enough? Now you’re putting me down too?” Yunhyeong chuckled mirthlessly. “So, what if it’s enough for me? Doesn’t it ever occurred to you that maybe I’m happy enough with that?”

“Are you, hyung?” Donghyuk asked, staring right through Yunhyeong’s unbridled eyes. His lips curved into a line in between of a smile and frown.

_ Was he really happy? _

Yunhyeong was silent for the longest time before he broke eye contact, wobbled to his feet as he get up and left without a word. No one dared to follow because they knew it would not be a good idea. Yunhyeong needed time to blew his steam off.

“That could’ve gone better.” Jisoo was the first to break the awkward tension that Yunhyeong left.

“I think I’ve gone to far.” Donghyuk admitted guiltily. “Must be the alcohol.” He sighed.

“You mean ‘we’ve gone too far’.”

“Not me.”

“You thought Yunhyeong sucked at sex.” Jisoo rolled her eyes and threw accusing finger at Junhoe.

“Fair point.” Junhoe shrugged.

“You know what it means, right?” Jisoo sighed, eyeing her two dongsaengs from across the table knowingly. They knew they have to apologize to Yunhyeong first thing in the morning over the killer hangover that they will definitely have tomorrow.

“Coffee is on me.”

“I’ve got the hangover pill.”

“Fine, cab fare’s mine.” Donghyuk pouted.

Junhoe pointedly look at the other too. “So… who’ll pay for Yunhyeong hyung’s drinks–?”

“—There you are, finally, the traffic was bad. Sorry,” A disheveled Chanwoo suddenly appeared and took a sit where Yunhyeong sat not long before. His innocent eyes swept across his friends’ smirking faces. “So, what did I miss?”

“Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!”

~0~

_ Why are you wasting your time with that kind of job? _

_ It’s because you’re so afraid of taking risks. _

_ “Really? Is that what they think of me now!? After all the things I did for them.” _ Yunhyeong gritted through his teeth. He didn’t want to be so petty but he was so mad that he wanted to shout or to kick something (or someone) but he was more livid that he could not do it or else he would most likely end up in a police station. Yunhyeong never thought that he was capable of feeling this raw and gnawing anger since he rarely lose his fuse at all but now he was trembling in suppressed rage and just wanted to rake out his hair like a madman. He was never this mad when Jisoo send him multiple NSFW links on his work email that he got called by the HR. Yunhyeong was never this mad when Junhoe and Chanwoo hid all of his underwear that he went to work without wearing any or when Donghyuk called him off about his receding hairline. Heck, he was never this mad even when his girlfriend turned out to be lesbian!

He took a long unsteady breaths to calm himself as he tried to walk straight with no sense of destination away from the bar where his so-called friends were at. He glanced at his wrist watch. It was almost midnight but the streets of Gangnam were still bustling in colors and people, mostly drunk people like him although they look like they were having the time of their lives which was far cry to his situation right now. Why? Yunhyeong wanted to scream at them. Why are they so happy while he felt so miserable? Yet despite all of his frustrations, he never tread to answer his own questions because deep inside Yunhyeong knew why. Right now, however, he doesn’t want to accept it. For the mean time, he will deflect and misdirect all his anger to everyone but himself and try to drown all of his sorrows with all the alcohol he can take.

With a new found purpose, Yunhyeong looked around to find a place where he could drink his misery into oblivion. In any normal day, he would never have the guts to drink alone let alone be near at any bar but tonight Yunhyeong felt he have the anger-induced courage to do anything. His eyes caught a glint of burning blue neon light that spelled the word ‘Inertia’ across the street and Yunhyeong knew, without any doubt, that’s where he should go. Eye on the price, he crossed the street without caring about the danger of jaywalking. 

_ How’s that for taking risks? Yunhyeong thought bitterly as he went inside of the dimly lit bar. _

Little that Yunhyeong know that the place he just went in was the most infamous gay bar in Gangnam.

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:
> 
> First of all, I'm not trying to offend any fans of Momoland Daisy and Momoland Daisy herself. I'm just saying. I have nothing against her.
> 
> Now that its out of the way, I just wanted to say hello to everyone. I know this story is long overdue but hey, here we are. I will forego any excuses because it doesn't matter. I'll try to commit to this just like I commit to Paper Pieces. So stay tuned. Honestly, nothing much really happened here on this chapter but the plot will pick up soon. You'll see YunBin up next and it's a little spicy.
> 
> Leave a comment or subscribe because it makes me happy. 
> 
> PS: Grammar, you know the drill. Also forgive my pathetic attempt on humor. I don't think I have natural knack for it. LOL.
> 
> PPS: Stay safe everyone! Eat lots of healthy food and wash your hands regularly!
> 
> ~Milkfish 


	2. Schrödinger’s Cat

Entangled II – Schrödinger’s Cat

~0~

_ A cat is placed in a steel box along with a Geiger counter, a vial of poison, a hammer, and a radioactive substance. When the radioactive substance decays, the Geiger detects it and triggers the hammer to release the poison, which subsequently kills the cat. The radioactive decay is a random process, and there is no way to predict when it will happen. Until the box is opened, an observer doesn't know whether the cat is alive or dead—because the cat's fate is intrinsically tied to whether or not the atom has decayed and the cat would, as Schrödinger put it, be "living and dead ... in equal parts" until it is observed. _

~0~

The first thing clear thought that came to Yunhyeong as soon as he opened his eyes was that he has a terrible headache and that he smelled like of what was seemed to be a horrible mixture of sweat, alcohol and vomit. Also, how annoying the sunlight that was seeping through his blinds to his blood shot eyes. He briefly wondered how wasted he was the night before but it was hard to do the recollection when the back of his head felt like it was cracked open and his throat was drier that north African desert. 

Yunhyeong groaned, arms reaching out to the bedpost for support as he tries to sit up. He briefly thought of how many tablets of pain killers and hangover pills he needed to take to feel like human being again because right now he was nothing but a battered skin and bones with faltering consciousness wondering if he could ever reach the kitchen for a glass of water.

“Water’s on the bedside table.” A man’s voice came somewhere behind him when he finally able to sit on the side of his bed that made Yunhyeong glanced up to the glass of water beside his alarm clock. 

“Thanks.” Yunhyeong mumbled reflexively, suddenly occupied by the prospect of not dragging himself across his apartment to quenched his thirst than to be bothered to know who was the owner of that voice. He grabbed the glass the gulped down the tap water to the last drop in a couple of seconds. He was about to put back down the empty glass when the notion that he was living alone came to him. Yunhyeong whipped back his head only to see an unknown guy standing only on his boxers at the other side of the bed.

“Morning, sleepy head.”

“Huh?” Yunhyeong was lost for a moment before his eye widened in realization. His eyes instantly scanned the room he was in and feel a small sense of relief that he was in his own bedroom. He turned again to the stranger in his bedroomwith an accusatory glare. “Who are you!? Why are you in my room?” His eyes took in the state of undress of the guy who looked about his age in an anxious voice. “And… and why are you only in your underwear? Oh my god, what did you do to me!?”

The guy cocked his head like he had been in this kind of situation before. “So, you’re gonna play it like you don’t remember anything last night, eh?”

“What do you mean? What exactly happened last night?” Yunhyeong demanded.

“Let’s just say, we got a little dirty last night.”

Yunhyeong blanched as he looked down at his own state of nakedness. He peeked under his cover and exhaled heavily when he saw he was also down on his undies. It was not the best but it was better than wearing nothing.

“D-did.. did we have,” Yunhyeong stammered in disbelief, pulling up the blanket to cover his exposed body, “—No, no, no. This is not right.” He shook his head in defiance and closed his eyes. “Ok. Calm down Yunhyeong. I’m sure this is just a dream. You will wake up soon alone in your room with a killer hangover.”

“But you just woke up.”

“Oh, shut up!”

The guy stared at him for a few seconds before his body uncontrollably shivered in mirth. 

“Why are you laughing!? Do you think this is funny!?” Yunhyeong snapped.

“No,” the guy shook his head and smirked, “But you’re funny. Cute, too.”

“Cute? Are you… -oh my god, d-did you just take advantage of my unconscious body last night?” Yunhyeong grabbed the empty glass on his side and pointed it to the guy.

The stranger put his hand up in surrender and rolled his eyes. “You really can’t remember anything about last night, huh?”

“I wouldn’t be asking you now, would I?” Yunhyeong retorted before putting back down his weapon of choice. He exhaled loudly and massage his temples and tentatively peered to the guy again. “Did we really have… s-sex?”

“No.” The guy answered flatly which only earned a dubious glare from Yunhyeong who was totally unconvinced with his answer. The unwanted visitor let lout a yawn and smirked beguilingly at Yunhyeong. “What? I told you, no. Why do you look disappointed?”

“Then why are we naked?”

“I told you we got a little dirty.”

“You said we didn’t have sex!?”

“I’m starting to think that you really wanted something to happen last night,” the guy mumbled under his breath. “Keep your mind out of the gutter, would you?”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing that from you when you keep saying that we got dirty last night!” Yunhyeong bite back, wobbling as he rose to his feet and still pulling the blanket over his body.

The guy made a sound of exasperation that didn’t sit well to Yunhyeong. “Because we got dirty last night. You puked all over the place last night. You vomited along sidewalk, in the cab. I mean, I have to pay the driver extra for the cleaning service. Most importantly, you threw up on me,” he explained. “So yeah, literally everywhere.” 

“Really? Then how do you know where I live?”

“I asked you,” the guy shrugged matter-of-factly. “You’re still pretty eloquent even though you’re wasted. I would’ve taken you to my place but based on your reaction now, I’m really glad I didn’t.”

“So, nothing really happened?” Yunhyeong asked in a voice still dripping in suspicion.

The guy nodded but when the distrustful expression didn’t leave Yunhyeong’s face, he scoffed. “Oh, trust me. If we had sex, you’ll know it.” 

“What!? What does it supposed to mean, you pervert!?”

“You want to know or you want me to show you?” The guy leered at him that made Yunhyeong clutched tighter on the sheet he was using as a makeshift cover.

Yunhyeong pinched the bridge of his nose as his head start to throb. He eyed to the perverted stranger in his bedroom wearily and sighed. “I can’t deal with you over this hangover. You know what? Get out. Leave me alone and go home.”

The guy frowned and cross his arms. “Really? After all the things I did for you last night I think at least I deserve some coffee,” he slowly smiled, “and some clean clothes,” he winked, “and a kiss.”

Yunhyeong snapped and quickly snatched a pillow on his bed and hurled it to the guy with all the strength that will make Chanwoo proud if he was there. He can’t believe that all the time he was forced by their maknae to be play as a pitcher for him finally paid off. It was just too bad that the guy was able to block it before it him in the face.

“Will you stop that?” Yunhyeong was breathing heavily in anger and frustration as he scanned around the mess of his bedroom, trying to locate his wallet. “Just tell me how much I owe you and let’s get this over with.”

“Woah, woah, hold your horses, honey.” The guy waved his hand off to Yunhyeong in a ‘stop’ gesture. “I hate to break it to you but you owe me more than a couple of bucks. I saved your ass last night…” he paused before adding, “Like literally.”

“What are you talking about?” Yunhyeong groaned wearily.

“You really had no idea what kind of place you went in last night?” The guy asked Yunhyeong, looking genuinely bemused for the first time.

“Obviously, I went to a bar. I wouldn’t be this hangover if it was a coffee shop.”

The guy laughed and stared at Yunhyeong with a smile on his face like he found a diamond.

“What’s so funny?”

“You…” the guy answered in a weirdly fond way that made Yunhyeong’s eyebrows creased. “Where have you been all my life? You’re so interesting.”

“Why do you keep on saying such nonsense?”

Shaking his head, the guy just grinned at Yunhyeong. “And here I thought you were there to get back with your ex-girlfriend who turned out to be lesbian.”

“Oh god, I even told you that?”

“You also told me about the pornographic links you accidentally clicked on at work.”

Yunhyeong did not know before if it was scientifically possible to get another headache on top of an already worse one but he was exactly experiencing it right now. He massaged his temples again in attempt to alleviate the agonizing pounding inside his skull as he tried to recall how did he end up in this mess of a situation. Yunhyeong remembered drinking with his friends until they pissed him off that he walked out. There was a bleary memory of him going alone to another bar and drinking himself to oblivion but after that there was only darkness and snippets of him throwing up along the curb. How could he be so reckless last night? Normally, in their group of friends, he was the moral conscience that kept the group away from speeding tickets and spending a night in a police station.

“Okay, okay. Let’s talk this out like an adult,” Yunhyeong said after calming himself out. For the first time he turned to the guy with most sincere look he could pull off. “Can we end this ill-fated encounter right here, right now?Despite having no clear memory of what happened, I’m grateful with what you did last night for me, vomit and all. I mean, for everything no matter how questionable this whole thing seemed to be. Since you swear that there’s absolutely nothing happened between us, can we just forget this and would you please go away now?”

“Of course, nothing happened. You’re still able to sit up without any pain.”

“Will you stop that?” He almost pleaded in mixture of exhaustion and annoyance. This guy was really pressing all the wrong buttons on purpose.

“Stop what?”

“Everything! So please shut up and leave me alone.” Yunhyeong seethed in unbridled irritation. He was so close on losing it. “And why are you talking so informally to me!? We weren’t close and you don’t look like you’re any older than me.”

“Want me to call you _hyung then_?” The guy stepped closer to Yunhyeong from across the bed with a seductive smile. “Never would’ve guessed you’re into that.”

“That’s it! I’m done! I’m kicking you out!” 

Still clinging to the sheets with a vice grip, Yunhyeong let out a battle cry and lunged at the guy who yelped in surprise. However, he was a few second late to realize that it was not a good idea to spring over the bed while covered in sheet. Halfway to his journey, his feet got tangled with the blanket itself and the various articles of clothing lying around. He tripped and fell over the guy harder than he initially planned on and ended up in pinning the guy between him and the floor with both of them grunting in pain.

Yunhyeong must have done something terrible in his previous life because it was on that moment that Yunhyeong’s bedroom door knob clicked. He could only choke in surprise and stared in horror as the door swung open.

“Hyung, what’s wrong? We heard shouting and —” Yunhyeong heard Donghyuk’s concerned voice got stifled by the shocked gasp, of not only him, but also Junhoe and Jisoo as they piled inside the room and saw the very compromising position, he was in.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Jisoo’s cautious words was first to shoot the humongous elephant in Yunhyeong’s tiny bedroom.

Junhoe briefly glanced at Jisoo before his gaze went back to Yunhyeong and to the guy under him. “I think we all know what’s going on, noona.”

“No! No!” Yunhyeong quickly yelled in defense. “I can explain. It’s… it’s not what it looks like, okay?”

“Then what does it look like?” Jisoo asked back, her eyes flashed with a mischievous glint staring at Yunhyeong as if he was a criminal caught in doing some illegal things.

Yunhyeong could feel the blood pumping erratically in his ears and his face felt like it was scorching in delirium inducing fever. He tried to look at his friends with a begging gaze as he fumbled over his brain for an excuse that will wipe the judging expression on their faces. 

“I... I tripped?”

Jisoo cocked her head and put a hand on her hips. “That’s what they always say.” 

“I swear! Nothing… nothing like that happened or… is going to happen.” Yunhyeong pleaded in a desperate attempt to make them believe him. In retrospect, he wasn’t sure why he even bothered. Knowing his friend, whether he was really telling the truth, which he was, they will still milk every ounce of embarrassment Yunhyeong has if it comes to it.

“Er, I don’t think staying on top of me is helping your case.” 

Yunhyeong whipped his head and realized that he was still hovering over and how close his face was with the guy that started all of this mess. As if he touched a hot pan, Yunhyeong recoiled and scrambbled over the sheets and cover his body as he stood and step away from the guy, who casually get on his feet not caring he was almost naked in front of a group of strangers.

“Ooh… what do we have here?” Jisoo made a sound of approval as her eyes raked shamelessly over the body of the equally shameless guy in the room. She slowly walked towards him, fished out a business card from her coat’s pocket and casually offered it to the guy like nobody’s business. “Hi, I’m Kim Jisoo. I happened to be an excellent lawyer. You can call me if you’re in need of my service.”

The guy blinked at Jisoo in confusion with the impromptu and seeming out of place introduction but took the card. He gave it a once over and gave Jisoo mix of apologetic and bewildered expression. “I’m Kim Hanbin but I don’t think I’m in need of any legal assistance as of the moment.”

“For the record, I’m also open for non-legal services.”

“Ya! Jisoo!”/ “Noona!” Yunhyeong, Donghyuk and Junhoe chorused at the same time.

“What? He’s hot, worth a shot.” Jisoo shrugged innocently.

“How dare you covet on Yunhyeong-hyung’s man in front of him, noona.” Junhoe chided.

“He’s not my man!”

“Hyung, I hope you didn’t do this because of what happened to you and Daisy-ssi.” Donhgyuk looked at Yunhyeong in an obvious apprehension.

“Of course not!” Yunhyeong berated promptly. He averted his gaze from Donghyuk and finger-pointed at this Kim Hanbin guy. “You! Tell them that nothing like that happened between us!”

Hanbin smirked. “You mean something like sex?”

“You really have to say that word?” Yunhyeong wished that he could glare hard enough to knock the life out of this Kim Hanbin. “Just tell them!”

Hanbin rolled his eyes and look at Yunhyeong’s three friends. “Nothing ‘ _like’_ that happened,” he said, air-quoting the word ‘like’ as he said it.

“And why should we believe you?” Jisoo narrowed her eyes at Hanbin.

“He can still stand, see.” Hanbin gestured to Yunhyeong as if the question had been rhetorical.

Junhoe, Jisoo and Donghyuk threw each other knowing glances before examining Yunhyeong like he was a bacterial specimen under a compound microscope. Their gazes made him clutch the sheet covering his body in a desperate attempt to shy away from the heavy scrutiny.

Jisoo hummed in inspection. Yunhyeong knew that look so well. It was the way Jisoo looked when she was searching for a loophole in the case files she was working on. “Lips dried, unbruised. Neck’s clear, no hickey. No signs of struggle on the exposed skin. Discomfort seemed to be an emotional one, not physical one localized in the lower extremities…” she trailed off like all of the evidences were enough.

“Well, yeah. He’s right,” Junhoe concluded.

“You believe his words but not mine. I’m your friend, not him!” Yunhyeong didn’t really know how to feel about how this situation turned out or how frustrating that his supposed to be friends was somewhat fraternizing with the enemy right in front of him. “And why do you all just assumed that I’m the one who had to take it in!!?” Yunhyeong raged out. When he saw Jisoo about to open her mouth, he cut her off with a gritted, “Don’t even start.”

Kim Hanbin smiled amusedly at Yunhyeong. “Wow, you’re even adorable when your angry.”

“I told you to stop that!”

“I’m guessing that you guys were the one he was grumbling about that pissed him off last night.” Kim Hanbin turned away from Yunhyeong and face his friends. “You guys shouldn’t really let him wonder off by himself in Gangnam at night. He went to Inertia and got so wasted enough to puked his guts out. Trust me, that’s not a safe place for a hot but clueless guy like him.”

“Inertia? The bar at the corner of the street? The one with the blue LED light?” Donghyuk’s alarmed eyes went between Jisoo and Junhoe for confirmation.

Jisoo’s eyes widen suddenly looking appalled. “Ya! Song Yunhyeong! You went to a _gay_ bar?”

“What… what do you mean gay bar?” Yunhyeong asked meekly.

“It’s a bar for gays, hyung. I don’t really know what’s tripping you off.” Junhoe reproached haughtily.

Yunhyeong blinked a few times wishing for his friends to suddenly called it off as a joke but it never happened. Then he turned towards Kim Hanbin, who just nodded with a gloating smile on his face.

“Oh.”

“Now that the cat’s out of the bag, can I perhaps borrow a pair of clean pants and shirt?”

~0~

It was almost past Yunhyeong’s normal lunch hour when he was slightly feeling human again. He owed it to the couple of hangover pills and gallons of water he knocked himself out earlier when finally managed to kick all of his unwanted visitors out of his apartment which they truly made an arduous and burdensome task to Yunhyeong. He already had a rough night yesterday and he never imagined that he will wake up with a rougher morning. He wondered if the universe was punishing him for something terrible he did but was not aware of. If Donghyuk heard of that thought, he would surely lecture him that the universe doesn’t work that way. You see, in their group, Donghyuk had the role of the being the brains. He was on his way of becoming a Physics professor after getting his PhD which will happen sooner than later. A far cry from Yunhyeong’s miserable life where he barely got the time to feel broken hearted because of all the things that happened to him in less than 24 hours, all he wanted to do was to forget everything. That, and to fill his growling stomach with something edible.

Yunhyeong was dragging his feet to the kitchen, debating whether to whip something quick or just order something from the chicken diner near his place, when he heard the familiar unlocking sound of his apartment’s door. He turned around trudged to his living room to see who it is, already preparing for the worse because it was either his family or his close friends who knew his unit’s code, with more probability on the latter.

“I should really change the passcode,” Yunhyeong muttered as soon as he saw Chanwoo smiling at him, instantly fully aware that his other friends had already told him everything that happened.

“Hello, Yunhyeong-hyung.”

“I’m not in the mood today, Chanwoo-ya.”

“I know. That’s why I brought this.” Chanwoo raised a familiar looking plastic bag he was holding. It had the logo from Yunhyeong’s favorite Japanese restaurant.

Yunhyeong stared at his youngest friend who has always been mistaken as his twin brother for a couple of seconds before he sighed with a defeated smile on his lips. Food bribery was one of Chanwoo’s expertise that no one could deny.

“You’re really a cunning a brat, you know that.” Yunhyeong snatched the plastic bag of his favorite food and swiftly settled on the small table on his living room with Chanwoo, chuckling as followed his suit.

They went silent for the first couple of minutes with Yunhyeong started devouring all different side dishes for every bite he took making his shambles of his life a little better.

“So…” Chanwoo began when they were almost done eating.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Yunhyeong quickly interjected.

“I just want to say that they were really worried, you know.” Chanwoo casted a concerned look at Yunhyeong. “I mean, we’re really worried.”

Yunhyeong dropped his chopsticks and lowered his gaze. “I know.” He smiled at Chanwoo and mumbled a soft, “Thank you.”

“Hyung, I think what you need right now is a short break.”

Yunhyeong glanced up, puzzled. “You mean a vacation?”

“Well, yeah.” Chanwoo shrugged. “You know, to think about… things.”

It was not a bad idea but Yunhyeong doesn’t think he can afford to take a few days off just because his ex-girlfriend was lesbian and he woke up with a stranger in his apartment. More importantly, his boss would not probably let him anyway or else he would find himself in need to find a new job.

“Not those _things_ , hyung.” Chanwoo reached out Yunhyeong’s shoulder with a knowing look on his face that was too mature for his age. He stared right through Yunhyeong’s eyes that made the conversation he had with Donghyuk last night echoed on the back of his head.

_ It’s because you’re so afraid of taking risks. _

_ It was enough for you. _

_ So, what if it’s enough for me? Doesn’t it ever occur to you that maybe I’m happy enough with that? _

_ Are you, hyung? _

“But I have to work—”

Chanwoo shook his head and cut him off with smirk. “Let Jisoo-noona do her thing.” He took out something from his wallet and put it in front of Yunhyeong. It was a bus ticket and a vacation coupon in a hotel in Sokcho.

“This feels like running away.” Yunhyeong whispered weakly. 

Chanwoo smiled in full assurance. “It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re going back anyway.”

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> We all need a friend like Chanwoo in our life. Cheers to some life lessons (and some science facts)! Well, I don’t want this to be just something fluffy or funny. Need to put some essence here and there, you know.
> 
> I’m starting to notice that 3000+ words is now my new normal for this fic which I think is both good and bad thing for me.
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter! YunBin was the first to graced us of their presence. And we’ll see YunBob next. The universe has still a lot of things to throw to our precious Yunhyeong. LOL
> 
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> ~Milkfish


	3. Chaos Theory

** Entangled III – Chaos Theory  **

~0~

_ Chaos Theory is a delicious contradiction - a science of predicting the behavior of “inherently unpredictable” systems. It is a mathematical toolkit that allows us to extract beautifully ordered structures from a sea of chaos - a window into the complex workings of such diverse natural systems as the beating of the human heart and the trajectories of asteroids. _

~0~

Yunhyeong considered himself as a passionate man. He always tries to give all his effort in everything that he needed to do, whether for work, for his friends or for his family. Yunhyeong also prided himself as a careful and meticulous planner, categorically and borderline to the term perfectionist. He likes a steady pace where he can think a few steps ahead so he has enough vision to take a step and not trip too hard that it’s hard to get back on his feet. He loves a certain degree of predictability in the way he lives his life. This doesn’t mean that he was not fond of changes. He already came in terms with it at an early age. It was just he likes it when everything he do or wanted to do was mapped out and all he needed to do was to stick with it until it gets him the end that he wanted. This is why Yunhyeong felt a little uncomfortable as he stood by the daunting entrance of a National Park, for a vacation that he never planned to do.

He was seriously debating on bailing out, go back at the hotel where he was staying and just lazed around at his room for the whole day like he did yesterday. But this was supposed to be his getaway from his recent misfortunes and break the shell of his mundane and boring way of living. Most importantly, Yunhyeong will surely feel guilty if he ended up wasting this short trip that Chanwoo arranged for him.

‘Yeah. Might as well give it a shot.’ Yunhyeong thought with a defeated sigh, dragging himself towards the information center. He was hoping that it would turn out to be really better than from what he expected. 

And it did.

It wasn’t long past the giant metal Buddha statue at the beginning of his chosen trail that his reservations and reluctance seemed to be just a distant thought. The tranquility of being surrounded by nature slowly took over Yunhyeong’s mind and body. He was surrounded by junipers and deciduous trees everywhere he looks. It must be absolutely magnificent here during the fall. And busy. But right now, since it wasn’t peak season and it’s Monday, there were barely any other people on the trail which made it even better.

Yunhyeong took his time walking up on the paved steps of gradual slope. He listened to the chirping of the kestrels. He inhaled the fresh scent of the final days of winter. He admired the giant slabs of smooth rock carved by the gentle current of the river. Everything was so immaculate that it was so relaxing. 

Yunhyeong kept going until he reached a bridge that ran below a giant peak of a rock mountain. It was in that place that he decided to stop and catch his breath that made him realized the fact that he was way out of shape since this trail was under the easy to moderate difficulty. He might consider going with Junhoe to the gym when he’s back in Seoul. He scanned the wrinkled trail map on his hand for a moment before he quickly reached the decision that this was how far he would go for today. The path beyond the bridge looked steeper and Yunhyeong was not confident enough that his shoes, which was not really suited for this kind of activity in the first place, would hold out any longer. Since he will be staying for a few days anyway, he’ll just come back tomorrow equipped with more suitable shoes. See, this was why he was not fan of ‘let’s cross the bridge when we get there’ way of things.

Halfway back, now feeling a slight strain on his legs, Yunhyeong was reaching for his water bottle from his backpack when he miscalculated his next steps that he lost his hold on the metal cylinder. It hit the stone pavement with a clink before it rolled off the few feet down the side of the trail. Yunhyeong was not above on forgetting about bottle and leave it there but his thirst and instinct on protecting the nature get the better off him. 

Cursing his clumsiness under his breath, he lowered himself and slide down the slope until he reached the rock where his bottle got stuck on. He picked it up and was dusting of the strands of dried grass that clinging on the bottle when something caught his peripheral vision. Yunhyeong went still for a moment, glancing up the trail if there was anyone nearby. There was no one. With a shaky breath, he turned to his side and slowly approach the sparse foliage that partially covered the thing that caught his eyes. 

It was a pair shoes… of a man. And he was bleeding.

Yunhyeong froze for a second before his adrenaline kicked in. He rushed towards the guy and winced the sight of blood streaming out his head.

“H-h-hey, are you ok?” Yunhyeong cursed himself for the dumb question. He was racking his brain about what to do in this kind of situation. He needed help. Medical help. He slings off his backpack and fumbling for his phone. “H-Hang on, ok. You need to hang on. I’m going to… going to call for help.” He said, voice trembling and his fingers shaking as he punched in the emergency numbers written at the back of the park’s trail map.

The guy groaned and stirred, noticing Yunhyeong’s frantic presence. He looked at Yunhyeong with a half conscious and fading gaze that made Yunhyeong’s heart shuddered in fear. His lips quivered with shallow breath as if he wanted to say something but could only make a choking sound.

Yunhyeong felt a lot of things at that moment but the feeling of helplessness was above anything else. He desperately cried for help to anyone wishing someone could hear him. He turned to guy and mumbled weightless assurance that he was going to be alright.

~0~

“Is… Is he ok?” Yunhyeong tentatively approach the middle-age grave looking doctor. He rubbed his clammy hands and nervously set it aside fiddling the side of his pants. He was not sure why he felt anxious and a little on the edge about the question and on hearing the answer.

“For the most part, yes. He’s still unconscious but we stopped the bleeding on his head. Apart from his head injury, his other vitals are all good but we still need to run him through MRI to make sure that there will be no swelling or internal bleeding or any brain damage.” The doctor sighed, putting his hands on his coat’s pocket and looked a Yunhyeong intently. “Are you perhaps his family?”

Yunhyeong shook his head. “I… I don’t really know him. I just found him…bleeding on my way back from my hike.”

The doctor studied Yunhyeong for a moment before nodding. “We didn’t find anything on him to verify his identity so we need to call the police to investigate.”

The doctor explained that he needed his cooperation for the police investigation and told him that he can see the patient when they finished running all the remaining tests. Only after the doctor left that Yunhyeong realized that his muscles were all taut and his body was aching. He took a deep shaky breath to relax ease the tension of his body before finally slumping on the hospital chair.

It didn’t take long before two officers arrived and approached Yunhyeong and asked him about what happened. Yunhyeong described everything that transpired that afternoon to the best of his ability, carefully and as vividly as he can recall. The doctor came back and joined them. He reiterated the condition of the guy that Yunhyeong found on the trail as he led them to the patient’s room where Yunhyeong finally saw the guy again but instead of blood oozing out of his head like before, his forehead was now wrapped in a white bandage. He looked peaceful, Yunhyeong thought.

Yunhyeong and the two officers listened to the doctor explained about the abrasion on the guy’s forearms, elbows and legs and of the high possibility that the guy somewhat slipped and hit his head on something hard. They left the room shortly and Yunhyeong was asked to come with the officers to show them where he found the guy.

The sun had already descended on the horizon when Yunhyeong finally got back to the hotel, partially absolved from all the moral and legal obligations of the incident that he got accidentally involved. He clumsily threw his battered flesh and bones in the soft cushion of his bed. He laid there in deep thought, staring at the cream painted ceiling with half-lidded eyes induced by the copious amount of food he ate to pacify the grumbling of his stomach. This was supposed to be his getaway, right? Yunhyeong was supposed to use this time to relax and make a fresh start with new perspective. Arguably, it was a fresh and relaxing start but it did a full180 just as quickly as it began and definitely opened his eyes to some unventured perspective he couldn’t quite put his fingers on. In some alternate universe, he was lying on his bed tired from his hike and thinking about the trees and the birds and clouds and view at the top of the mountain but in this universe, as he drifted off to sleep, he was thinking of the look on the guy’s face when Yunhyeong found him losing his consciousness, staring right through Yunhyeong’s eyes as he reached out to touch his face with a bloodied hand.

~0~

It was not the soft morning light shining through the window that woke Yunhyeong up, it was the incessant buzzing of his phone from somewhere on his bed. He groaned wearily and turned to his side, one hand blindly searching for his phone. When his hand eventually grabbed the vibrating object, he answered the call without cracking his eyes open.

Yunhyeong croaked out a muffled hello. There was shuffling noise and some weird clamor on the other end before an urgent voice came. It took a few seconds before Yunhyeong caught up with the message from the caller that made him jump straight out of bed. The call was from the hospital and they needed Yunhyeong to be there right now.

“I’m certain that he’s looking for you,” was the first thing that the doctor from yesterday said to Yunhyeong when he saw him outside the room where the bleeding guy he found from the day before was staying at. The doctor didn’t bother to wait on his response. He slides the door open and went inside to which Yunhyeong followed shortly even without a full understanding of the issue. 

Inside the room, Yunhyeong first saw a pillow on the floor then two frazzled nurses standing from one side of the bed looking down on someone on the corner of the room and asking the person to calm down. He inched closer to the nurses and Yunhyeong his gaze landed on a guy with his head covered in bandages looking at the nurses like a cornered animal.

The doctor cleared his throat, gathering the attention of the everyone in the room. “Mr. Song is now here for you,” he tentatively announced, eyes going from Yunhyeong then to the guy.

Yunhyeong nervously glanced to where the guy was hunched over and for the second time their eyes finally meet again.

“Err, hello?” Yunhyeong said in an unsure voice.

The guy stared at Yunhyeong hard looking somewhat relieved before his eyes darted anxiously to the doctor and nurses on the room. Yunhyeong blinked confusedly not really knowing what to do from there. He turned to the doctor with a probing gaze, who nodded at him towards guy’s direction.

Yunhyeong smiled apprehensively towards the guy as he slowly approaches him. When he was an arm’s length away, the guy suddenly jumped on him, wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his face on Yunhyeong’s neck. Yunhyeong instantly froze, hand balling into a fist as he fights the urge to push the guy away. They stood still in the far corner of the room for an awkward amount of time before Yunhyeong recovered. Hesitantly, he raised his hand and gently pat the guy’s back, muttering the words, ‘It’s ok. Don’t worry,’ as he does so. The effect was instantaneous as he felt the guy sighed and leaned on him more.

_ ‘What’s happening?’ _ Yunhyeong mouthed back to the doctor and the nurses.

The nurses gushed in subdued voice while the doctor cracked a knowing smile.

~0~

“Ok. So, are you telling me he can’t remember anything… at all?” Yunhyeong repeated mostly to himself as if he could not believe what the doctor just explained to him. They were in the doctor’s office to discuss the guy’s condition and the result of police investigation. He looked around the room like he was waiting for some intervention but the two police officers remained silent and the doctor nodded in affirmation. 

“He experienced a mild traumatic brain injury in the incident that caused the memory loss. To be specific, he’s exhibiting a clear indication of retrograde amnesia where he’s unable to recall past events. On a good note, his brain scan went out all normal. No swelling or internal bleeding.”

“But its temporary, isn’t it?”

The doctor sighed and take of his glasses. “More than half of the cases the patient will slowly recover his memory in time. Hopefully for this case, since there was no internal damage, it would be the same. But for how long? It’s a case to case basis.”

Yunhyeong can take that. The odds were good enough. He nodded before turning to the police officers, clear intent on his expression. “Did you find out who he is? We need to inform his family. I’m sure they’re all worried.”

“About that…” The two police officers shared an almost forlorn look before meeting Yunhyeong’s eyes. They took out the case files from a brown envelope and laid it on the table before telling them the full account of their investigation.

Yunhyeong shifted on his seat and listened intently. He felt his heart sank couple of feet down as the cops went through their report. They told them that, so far, they did not find any form of identification that can tell them who the guy is. The guy turned out to be unregistered as they could not find him in the system neither. They’ve been searching around the area where the guy was found and already contacted every hotel and guest house around the national park, he could possibly stay but they found no lead. They only found a trace of the guy in a blurry CCTV video where he got off the bus without carrying anything with him, just the same plain clothes he was wearing when Yunhyeong found him.

“And we found this along the trail on the mountain,” one of the officers show a small vial and nodded at the doctor, “It’s a kind of sleeping pill.”

“The lab result found a high amount of Triazolam in his body,” The doctor added.

Yunhyeong briefly glanced at everyone in the room, lost for words and afraid of where the direction of conversation was going.

“There’s a very high chance that it was not an accident,” the officer paused, exhaling slowly. “It was intentional.”

“What… what does it supposed to mean?”

~0~

Yunhyeong slipped quietly back on the patient’s room after talking with the officers and the doctor with a heaviness on his every step. He sat beside the bed and stared at the pristine look on the guy’s face as he sleeps. He could not believe how someone who looked this peaceful could ever think of committing that horrible thing. Just wondering about what possible reasons that would drive anyone to that kind of decision made Yunhyeong’s heart break into cold pieces of jagged sadness. It was so depressing to think he wanted to disappear without leaving any trace. But somehow there was a small spark of hope that it ended differently. Yunhyeong wanted to think that there should be something more for this guy to live for. Something that will make him truly happy. Something that he always wanted.

But there’s still a lot of things that should be figured out first, Yunhyeong thought frustratingly and wearily as he rests his head over his arms on the side of the bed, remembering how the last part of the conversation with the doctor and police had gone.

_ “So, what will happen to him now?” Yunhyeong softly asked after a long and tensed silence. _

_ “We will be forced to take him to a facility until we found his family.” _

_ “But there will be a problem,” The doctor announced calling the attention of everyone in the room. He leaned back to his swivel chair and locked gazes with Yunhyeong before continuing, “The patient is showing symptoms of PTSD that causing him to panic in front of strangers and I think he developed some form of dependency or attachment to you, Mr. Song, like you’re the only one he could remember. You witnessed what happened this morning.” _

_ “What do you mean? And how could that be possible when we never really met before?” _

_ “You said that the patient was still half-conscious when you found him, correct?” The doctor asked Yunhyeong to which he nodded promptly. “I would recommend to see an expert on behavioral psychology if we really want to know but it would seem that you’re the first person that he can remember that trigger some sort of memory in him. You’re the only person familiar to him, everyone else are all strangers. So, it would not be helpful on his mental health and will hinder his recovery if he will be put in an environment foreign to him surrounded by people, he wasn’t familiar with.” _

_ Yunhyeong took a long moment to let every word sink in. He lowered his gaze and think about the very serious implication the doctor was getting at. _

_ “Are you… are you suggesting that I take him with me?” _

_ “We know it is a very huge responsibility but yes, that’s what I’m suggesting. However, we cannot force you to do anything so, at the end of the day, it will still be your decision.” _

~0~

The first thought that came to Yunhyeong as soon as he woke up was that he had fallen asleep and there was a hand delicately running through his hair. He slowly peeked under his half open eyes and was greeted by another pair of eyes staring at him in wonder. Yunhyeong almost jumped out of his skin when his vision came into focus and his consciousness returned to him. He sat up straight and was about to stand up when he realized that the guy was holding his other hand. Yunhyeong stared back and forth to the guy and to his hand not entirely sure what he wanted to say.

A hushed giggle interrupted Yunhyeong’s internal debate. He whipped his head to see one of the nurses that was in the room earlier that day.

“He’s been staring at you so fondly that he didn’t even noticed that I changed his bandage,” the nurse informed Yunhyeong a little too enthusiastically. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Yunhyeong asked baffled by the sudden statement and the weird smile playing on the nurse’s lips.

The nurse smirked at Yunhyeong. “I’m saying that he was looking at you like you’re a star that shine in the sky.” She averted her gaze to the guy’s hand that was firmly holding Yunhyeong’s as her grin widen. “I really think he likes you.”

Yunhyeong purposely ignored the line that suspiciously sound like lyrics of a country song. “I think you’re mistaken,” Yunhyeong paused to look on the name written on the nurse’s nametag, “Park Chaeyoung-ssi. You know more than me that he hit his head pretty hard. It’s nothing. This is just him being a little disoriented.” Yunhyeong smiled tightly and wanted to make his point across by trying to pull his hand away but the guy’s grip wouldn’t budge.

“Told you, oppa and just call me Rosé.” Chaeyoung snickered elbowing Yunhyeong at his side like they were close friends.

Ignoring the nurse’s antics, Yunhyeong turned to the guy instead with a hesitant smile. “Can you let go of my hand now? I need to get something to drink.”

The guy blinked confusedly then frowned when Yunhyeong attempted to wiggle out his hand again.

“Oh, don’t sweat it, oppa and stay right where you are. I’ll bring you two refreshments and something to eat.” Chaeyoung piped in, leaning a little closer to Yunhyeong. “If someone is looking at you so purely and honestly like that, trust me, it wasn’t just nothing,” she whispered, muttering about how she wished someone would look at her like that before leaving Yunhyeong alone with guy that would not let go of his hand.

“Can you talk?” Yunhyeong asked cautiously shortly after the nurse left. He was really curious because he never really heard the guy say anything since this morning. He just nods or shake his head when they asked him questions. The silence that followed was stretched long enough that Yunhyeong realized the he was not getting any form of verbal response from the guy. He sighed and went back to his seat since it doesn’t look like that the guy would let go of his hand anytime soon. “Did you also forget how to talk because of the amnesia? Is that even possible?” Yunhyeong asked out loud, but this time it was mostly to himself.

Then Yunhyeong felt a squeeze on his hand that made him perked up and meet the guy’s eyes. He was staring at him so intensely that made Yunhyeong’s heart beat a little faster in nervousness. But what happened next almost made his heart jump out of his rib cage.

“T-thank you,” the guy said in a low raspy voice.

“Oh, hey! You can talk after all!” Yunhyeong beamed so wide that his cheeks hurt. He suddenly feels so pumped up and excited for that big progress. His mind was instantly overwhelmed by the number of questions he wanted to ask next but he was cut off before he could ask anything.

“Thank you...” The guy repeated, squeezing Yunhyeong’s hand again but now with a smile that spoke volumes playing on his lips. “… for saving me.”

Yunhyeong doesn’t even know how long he stared at the guy with an open mouth. His mind rippled with pictures and memories of events from yesterday to this very moment. All he could think of was the look the guy’s face when he found him bleeding yesterday, his peacefulness when he sleeps, the fondness on his eyes as when he stared at him and the hopeful smile he was wearing now. He really wanted to say something back he could not think of the right words.

Maybe because there were no right words.

_ If someone is looking at you so purely and honestly like that, trust me, it wasn’t just nothing. _

_ We know it is a very huge responsibility but yes, that’s what I’m suggesting. We cannot force you to do anything. So, at the end of the day, it will still be your decision. _

Maybe there’s only right decision.

~0~

“Is he sleeping?” Donghyuk asked quietly peering at Yunhyeong through the rear-view mirror.

“Maybe,” Yunhyeong glanced at the guy who was comfortable with his head resting at Yunhyeong’s shoulder. He remembered his few failed attempts to slipped out of the guy’s room when he thought the he was already sound asleep but would open his eyes open as soon as Yunhyeong tried to get on his feet. “Sometimes, his eyes are just closed.”

Afraid and excited were the names of the two beats drumming on Yunhyeong’s heart as he stared at the tree line whipping past them as he sat at the backseat of Donghyuk’s car. Two days had already passed after Yunhyeong made the decision to take care of the guy. Two days had already passed when Yunhyeong abruptly called and asked Donghyuk for this favor and he can’t really express how grateful that his friend was far too smart to know when not to ask questions. But the consequences of that decision were slowly surfacing on his mind making him think that the ‘rightness’ of a decision was highly debatable. Because, two days ago, everything that happened almost felt surreal but now that they were driving back to Seoul, Yunhyeong was slapped by the new reality he had to face.

“You never told me what really happened, hyung.”

“It’s a long story.”

Donghyuk gave offered him a comforting smile. “Well, it’s a long drive.”

With the subdued music from the radio murmuring in the background, Yunhyeong began to tell his story. He told him what happened. He told Donghyuk everything except for one, because that piece of information will do nothing but harm especially now that the guy was just right by his side. For now, it would be the better to keep it to himself as long as possible. But it would be the best to forget it all together if it was even possible.

“So, that’s it? No questions or anything?” Yunhyeong asked in disbelief, breaking the long silence that followed after his recount. “I expected that you’d bombarded me with tons of things by now.” 

“Do you want me to?”

The brief glance they shared through the rear-view mirror was enough for Yunhyeong to understand that it was not that Donghyuk doesn’t have any questions or anything to say about the whole situation. It was just for now, Donghyuk was there for him to listen. That alone means so much to Yunhyeong. Because, unlike before, he didn’t have any plan. Because he got nothing figured out. Because everything was still a mess. Even him.

“No.”

“Well, I actually just have one question.”

“Hm?”

“What do we call him? We can’t keep calling him in pronoun or just ‘the guy’.” 

Yunhyeong could not believe he almost forgot about it. They needed a name. Yunhyeong glanced at the guy’s sleeping form from the corner of his eyes, thinking for a name that would suit him. Yunhyeong was in deep thought when a new song played into the radio that filled the car with a soft catchy tune.

“Why does this song sound so familiar?”

“Hyung, I thought we were thinking about names not a song?” Donghyuk reminded the older reproachfully even though he still paused for a few seconds to listen to the song. “Isn’t it the song that Junhoe-ya covered last week on his Instagram.”

Yunhyeong’s eyes widen in recognition. “Oh, yeah! What is it again?”

“I can’t remember the title but it’s a Bob Marley song.” 

Yunhyeong hummed in consideration for a moment before grinning widely. “You know what, let’s call him that.” 

“What? You mean Bob Marley?” Donghyuk suddenly looked aghast with the suggestion.

“Not exactly. Let’s just call him… Bobby.”

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> This chapter was so long and agonizing to write. I took out, rewrite, cut-off, skip and rewrite again many scenes. It’s too much. So, please bear with it if the pacing seems a little jumpy. I tried.
> 
> The good news is that, we finally have Bobby into the mix! YunBob is so soft on this one! Can you already see the where will this story goes? It’s going to be a chaotic ride. 
> 
> Also, I’m seriously considering to add JunHwan side pairing. What you think?
> 
> Anyways, I really hope you enjoy this one. Please leave a comment or two. I’ll be grateful.
> 
> ~Milkfish


	4. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

  
**Entangled IV – Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle**

_ Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that the position and velocity cannot both be measured, exactly, at the same time (actually pairs of position, energy and time).There is a minimum for the product of the uncertainties of these two measurements. There is likewise a minimum for the product of the uncertainties of the energy and time. Even with perfect instruments and technique, the uncertainty is inherent in the nature of things. _

~0~

The mechanical click of the apartment’s door shutting close only signifies the dreaded thought, that Yunhyeong deliberately ignored the moment he made his decision two days ago, has officially started. It was happening and it was terrifying. He almost caught himself opening the door again to call out Donghyuk and ask him to stay. Because what was he supposed to do now?

Yunhyeong tried to calm himself by repeating the mantra that the start was the hardest part. He just need to get past this uphill, nerve-racking beginning and after that, everything will be okay. He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breath before turning around to face the new responsibility he brought upon himself. Yunhyeong yelped out of his skin when he come face to face with an anxious looking Bobby.

“Oh my god! Bobby! Wha-why are you standing so close? Gosh, you scared me.” Yunhyeong backed up a step and clutched his chest with his hand to soothe the sudden spike of his blood pressure.

Bobby bit his lips nervously, eyes darting from the door then back to Yunhyeong. He seemed to be having an internal struggle if he wanted to say something but he stayed quiet for a long time before mumbling under his breath, “Bobby? Is that my name?”

“Well, that’s just something I came up with. We need a name to call you for the mean time since you can’t remember your real one.” Yunhyeong composed himself , shooting Bobby an awkward smile. “If you don’t like it, you’re free to choose one yourself. Just tell me. It’s your name anyway.”

Pausing momentarily, Bobby repeated the name few times like he was familiarizing himself with the sound of it or how to say it. “No, I like it,” he said, shaking his head with a shy smile. “You gave it to me.” 

“Oh. Uh, ok. I mean, good,” Yunhyeong chuckled uneasily not sure how to respond to that. He was still not used to Bobby’s sudden burst of child-like candidness. It has been happening on numerous occasions that Yunhyeong thought that maybe it was his old self surfacing but it was still too early to tell. For now, Yunhyeong would have these instances put under as one of the side effects of his head injury. 

“You need to take your meds soon. Why don’t you sit in the couch for a while?” Yunhyeong suggested, distracting him with a new subject, when his eyes caught a glimpse of the time on the clock across the room. When Bobby did not move an inch, Yunhyeong tentatively put his arm around Bobby’s shoulder and urged him with a nod, guiding him to the couch. Yunhyeong exhaled breathily as soon as Bobby settled, dangerously flirting with the idea that this must be the same feeling of a parent coaxing his child to eat vegetables. 

Yunhyeong surveyed the messy coffee table with weary eyes briefly before giving Bobby one last look. “I’m just gonna cleanup this up and fix your bed, ok?”

Without expecting any answer, Yunhyeong started to clear out the takeout they had for dinner. A simple task that typically he can finished in a minute under normal circumstances. Yunhyeong guessed that tonight was not one of those, especially not when Bobby’s eyes followed his every movement as he pick up used cups and chopsticks. Never did he feel so conscious while cleaning up a table but Yunhyeong managed to choke it down and focus on the chore at hand to save himself from breaking a plate or two.

Yunhyeong found a short refuge, away from Bobby’s watchful stare, at the kitchen as he busied himself on washing the dishes. It didn’t take him long to finish though. With a weary sigh, he turned off the faucet and pulled his hand out of gloves, his mind already wandering about the medications that Bobby needed to take. Wheeling back on his feet, on set for his next mission, Yunhyeong froze on his tracks when he saw Bobby at the kitchen’s doorway.

“Bobby! Why are you standing there?” Yunhyeong backpedaled in surprise, eyebrows knitting together. He cannot wait for the time when Bobby’s sudden appearances wouldn’t faze him anymore. He also took a mental note that he needed to remind Bobby not to sneak up on anyone like that or at least make some sound to alert him of his presence for the sake of Yunhyeong’s heart. “I told you to stay there and wait for me. You know, you shouldn’t be standing or moving around.”

Bobby frowned, nervously looking down at his feet. “You’re not… you’re not gonna leave me, aren’t you?”

Yunhyeong faltered, hearing the crack on Bobby’s voice. He remembered the anxiousness on Bobby’s face when they were standing at the door earlier. He was so caught up on thinking about his own feelings and the consequences of his decision that he failed to consider what Bobby might be feeling about all of this too. Yunhyeong could not even imagine how scary and daunting it must for Bobby, waking up without remembering anything about himself in a strange place full of unfamiliar faces.

“Where did you get that? Of course not.” Yunhyeong answered promptly approaching the other guy at the kitchen’s entrance. He cautiously put a hand on Bobby’s back, rubbing it slowly to ease up the tension on his body. “Bobby… this is where I live, it’s my apartment. Well, now we can say it’s _our_ apartment since you’re going to stay with me for a _while_ …” 

Yunhyeong continue to gently pat Bobby’s back until he gradually relaxes. When Bobby finally look up and meet his gaze, Yunhyeong reassured him with a warm smile and a promise, hoping that it was enough to chase some of his fears away.

_ “Don’t worry, ok? I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.” _

~0~

It was already past eleven when Yunhyeong slipped out of his room after making sure that Bobby was sound asleep. Dragging with him a spare blanket and pillow that his friends (most of the times Jisoo) uses when they crash to his place after a night of heavy drinking, he trudged his way to the couch where he haphazardly threw his drained body. Thankfully, the couch was big and comfortable enough for Yunhyeong which he couldn’t believe he owed to Jisoo since she was the one who forced him to buy this couch because she often come over and she needed something comfy to sleep in to despite having a bigger and better one of her own. Well, he guessed that Jisoo would have to sleep on her own apartment since Yunhyeong have Bobby now.

Yawning inaudibly, he turned to his side as his eyes started the get heavy. The physical and emotional roller coaster of the past days must have finally taken its toll on him because he easily mold himself to soft cushion beneath him. Not a moment later, Yunhyeong finally succumbed to exhaustion and his mind drifted off to somewhere else.

Yunhyeong slowly woke up the next morning, after a series of groaning and tossing around, with a pair of attentive eyes staring down on him. Blinking a few times in his half-awake stupor, Yunhyeong squinted closely in inspection until the proverbial light bulb finally spark in recognition.

“Bobby!?” Yunhyeong gasped, jolting to a sitting position. “What are you doing here? You should be in bed.”

When Bobby made no response, Yunhyeong rubbed his eyes and briefly glance at the clock. It was past eight in the morning but he still felt that his body barely get enough rest. Stifling a yawn, he looked back at Bobby, awake enough to finally notice how he was sitting on the floor beside the couch with strewn out bedsheet and pillow around him.

“Bobby, did you sleep here?” Yunhyeong asked, eyebrows furrowing.

Bobby fidgeted , peering shyly back at Yunhyeong. “I woke up but you’re not there...”

Yunhyeong stared at Bobby for a long time until, surprisingly for the first time, it was Bobby who averted his gaze first usually it was the other way around. Yunhyeong watched him play with his fingers like a child caught sneaking out some cookies from the cookie jar even though he seemed to be old enough to be about Yunheong’s age. Is it because of his amnesia or he has always been like this?

At length, Yunhyeong released a long, heavy sigh that caught Bobby’s attention. “We already talked about this last night, didn’t we? I’m not going to leave you,” he reiterated patiently, reaching out to brushed Bobby’s hair sticking out of his bandage. “So, don’t sleep on the floor again. It’s not good for you.”

When Bobby nodded, Yunhyeong smiled at him, standing from the couch. “Then, let’s go get something to eat,” he said, offering Bobby a hand.

Bobby’s face considerably brightened at the gesture. He excitedly grabbed Yunhyeong’s hand with both of his own. Unfortunately for Yunhyeong, he underestimated the enthusiasm and weight of the other guy because instead of pulling him up, it was Yunhyeong who got pulled down and fell over him. Yep, definitely not a child, he thought, groaning. He lifted his head to check on Bobby, who looked more shocked than hurt, which was good on Yunhyeong’s book. He wouldn’t want to add give the guy another concussion. 

“You okay there?” Yunhyeong still couldn’t help but asked.

Bobby only stared dazedly at Yunhyeong before avoiding his gaze, face flushing. Confused with response, Yunhyeong pause for a moment, eyes panning at their current position. His hands were in either side of Bobby’s body, probably involuntarily trying to lessen the impact of the fall. Their legs were a tangled mess and Yunhyeong’s cheeks was resting on Bobby’s chest that he can feel every rise and fall of his breathing.

Yunhyeong winced as he lifted himself up, not sure if it was because of embarrassment or pain or both. But before he could extract himself out of this sticky situation, he heard the tell-tale signs the apartment’s door opening followed by multiple steps entering. Whipping his head back, Yunhyeong was finally convinced that the universe hated his guts, slapping him hard with déjà vu again right before he had his coffee, as he watched his four friends rushing in.

More importantly, he really need to change his passcode.

“Song Yunhyeong! What is this that I heard abo—” Jisoo stopped mid-rant when she saw the unsettling situation Yunhyeong was in. Slowly taking off her sunglasses with her long dainty fingers, she leaned in, raising an amused eyebrow. “Oh, bad timing again?”

“Well, they’re still both fully clothed. I’d say, we’re just in time,” Junhoe answered, shrugging casually beside Jisoo.

Yunhyeong opened his mouth to defend himself but ended up deciding against it, remembering how bad it turned out the first time so there’s no reason that this time would be any different. He rolled his eyes, drawing a long defeated sigh, and ignored the jive and malicious look from his friends. Yunhyeong tried his best to calmly untangled himself off Bobby then help the other guy to get on his feet, without any issue this time.

“That’s it? No excuse this time? I guess this one’s your type then,” Jisoo asked smirking, looking over Bobby with her judging eyes. “Hmm… not bad.”

Bobby tensed with Jisoo’s eyes on him. He latched on Yunhyeong’s forearm, staying behind him to shy away from the scrutiny. Yunhyeong was not surprised with the reaction, Jisoo was already intimidating by default more so when she purposely want to.

“Stop it, Jisoo. You’re scaring him.” Yunhyeong hissed. He gave Jisoo dull look before turning to Donghyuk for an explanation.

Donghyuk rubbed the back of his neck and shot him a sheepish smile. “I tried my best to keep it from them and stop them, hyung. But Jisoo noona…”

Yunhyeong closed his eyes and massage his temple. It’s not like he wanted keep Bobby a secret . He knew his friends will find out one way or another but Yunhyeong wanted to buy a few days at least until he composed his thoughts about this that’s why he asked Donghyuk not to tell them. Unluckily for Yunhyeong, he failed to account how sharp Jisoo’s intuition could be at times and how good she was when it comes to sniffing something out, she’s like one of those bomb sniffing dogs.

“You got a lot of explaining to do about your boy toy, Yunhyeong-ie,” Jisoo crossed her arms and cocked her head.

“He’s not my boy toy. His name is Bobby,” Yunhyeong snapped, looking at her dryly. He briefly shoot Bobby an apologetic smile before turning to his waiting friends, shoulders dropping in defeat. “Please let me have my coffee first.”

“I’ve got you your usual,” Chanwoo piped up behind Jisoo lifting the to-go cups from their favorite coffee shop.

~0~

After the caffeine started to kick in and do its wonder to Yunhyeong, he explained how his simple getaway ended up to this situation in exact the same way he did to Donghyuk last night. Yunhyeong also realized that he needed to accept the fact that this won’t be the last time he would tell this story. He took a mental note to have the whole thing memorized so he could tell it to the next person who will demand for an explanation without batting an eye.

There was a tensed silence that loomed around Yunhyeong’s small kitchen table where the group sat. It was longer than he initially anticipated but he was sure that it was not for the same reason that Donghyuk has yesterday. His eyes darted back and forth among his friends, waiting for first one to blow over.

And just as Yunhyeong expected, it was Jisoo.

“So, you’re telling me that you’ve been investigated…” Jisoo began, voice low and disconcertingly calm. She leaned in to the table, eyes narrowing dangerously at Yunhyeong. “And you didn’t even think of calling me?” She hissed.

“Yes, I’ve been investigated,” Yunhyeong admitted, shooting Jisoo a pained smile. “But in my defense , not as suspect.”

With the way Jisoo pursed her lips, Yunhyeong was sure she didn’t like his reply one bit.

“Did you know that that time?”

Yunhyeong fidgeted uncomfortably at his sit, glancing at Jisoo guiltily. “Well… I know it now.”

All of the guys around the table winced when Jisoo slammed her hand to the table. Yunhyeong was glad that Bobby was not there. It was too early for him to witness Jisoo’s anger. Surprisingly enough, Bobby did not make too much fuss when Yunhyeong had asked him to stay in his room for a while. Jisoo most probably play a huge role on that too.

“What were you thinking!? You should’ve called me!”

“I know. I just don’t want to make it a big deal—” 

“It’s a big deal!”

Yunhyeong was fully aware where Jisoo was coming from. Jisoo knew it too well how by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time can end you up in court or worse, in jail. It’s just his luck that it did not turned out that way in his case. 

“I’m sorry. I should’ve called you,” Yunhyeong relented. Sighing, he slumped his shoulder and lowered his gaze. “And if ever something like that happen again, I promise that I’ll call you.

“Damn right, you will,” Jisoo muttered , giving Yunhyeong final warning look as she relaxes back on her seat and crossed her arms.

“Why didn’t you let the authorities take him in?” Chanwoo asked after Jisoo calmed down.

“I already told you about his condition and he’s also suffering panic attacks with people he doesn’t know,” Yunhyeong answered, turning to their youngest with wry smile. “Somehow, I’m the only one he can remember.”

“Will his memory ever comeback?” This time the question came from Donghyuk.

“It will… in time.” Yunhyeong thought about the time when he asked the same question to the doctor. The odds were pretty good, right?

“But when is that, hyung?” Junhoe grunted, cradling an empty cup on his hand.

Yunhyeong had no answer for that.

“You said you can’t leave him alone. What about when you got back to work on Monday? What will you do about him?” Jisoo added, her lips pressed with a slight frown. She sounded a little disappointed that he hadn’t thought this through.

Yunhyeong was disappointed with himself too. But what else can he do? The scenes from the hospital flashed right in front of his eyes. Bobby’s vulnerable voice. How he squeeze Yunhyeong’s hand. Somehow, after that, he could not imagine of making a different decision. Even now.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” Yunhyeong confessed, covering his face with both of his hand. He went silent for a moment before he put his hand back down to the table. “This is why I don’t want you guys to know about this yet. I… I’ve got nothing planned. Honestly, I don’t even know if I can really do this,” he continued in a low voice, wishing that it was low enough so Bobby could not hear it.

Jisoo sighed, uncrossed her arms and leaned in to reach out Yunhyeong’s hand, squeezing it lightly. “I’m sorry, Yunhyeongie. We didn’t mean to overwhelm you. We’re just concerned about all of this.”

“And now that everyone knows, we can help you figure something out,” Chanwoo offered from across the table.

Raising his eyebrows, Yunhyeong perked up. “Really?”

“It’s not that our sole purpose is to torment you, hyung. It’s just a part,” Junhoe proudly informed him with sideway glance.

“You mean most of the part,” Yunhyeong rolled his eyes, small smile playing on his lips.

“Besides, you’ve have been able to put up with these three brats, I’m sure that you got this one covered.” 

“Three!?” Yunhyeong gaped incredulously at Jisoo. The rest of them had a similar look of disbelief and betrayal on their faces. They could not believe that they were hearing it from her of all people.

Lifting her chin up, she leaned back crossing her legs and arms like a an rich aristocratic villain from a western play. With a smug smile, she said, “What? I’m an angel and you guys know it.”

There was a dramatic pause and shared glances from across the table before all of them chuckled for the first time that morning.

~0~

Yunhyeong felt like some weight have been lifted off his chest when his friends left. It turned out much better than he expected. Given that they haven’t really figured everything out, it was enough for Yunhyeong to know that they got his back whatever happen. That alone helped Yunhyeong to ease up on himself a little, cleared his thoughts and self-doubt. It was also an icing to the cake that his friends, even though Yunhyeong was always the subject of their jokes and antics, can always take his mind off things.

With a new lightness on his steps, Yunhyeong turned his back from the door and went straight to his room to check up on Bobby. That guy must be hungry by now since Yunhyeong himself was starving. The good thing was that he doesn’t need to prepare breakfast because Chanwoo, being the sweetest angel he is, left them with one.

When Yunhyeong entered the room, Bobby was sitting at the side of his bed with his back turned to him. As Yunhyeong neared him, he saw Bobby anxiously clasping and unclasping his hands on top of his thighs. His head was bowed down so Yunhyeong could not his face but the posture and demeanor was enough clue for him to go by.

“They don’t like me, don’t they?” Bobby asked before Yunhyeong could approach him.

Bobby must have heard it when Jisoo slammed the table. Sighing, Yunhyeong crouched in front of Bobby, trying to look at his face. “No. It’s not like that. Bobby, they’re just worried for us. What… what make you think that?”

“It’s just… I know you’re forced to take care of me and I know I’m being a burden to you… You didn’t even know me.”

So, those were the things that were really running on his mind? Yunhyeong thought that he somewhat understood what Bobby was going through with what happened last night but it was much more complicated than that. There’s so much layer that needed to uncover. As it turned out, all he knew was just the tip of the iceberg. He briefly wondered if the time will ever come for him to comprehend it fully. 

But for now, what Yunhyeong needed to do is to make Bobby understand.

“Hey, look at me…” Yunhyeong coaxed. He put his hand over Bobby’s to stop it from twiddling. “This is hard for me too… but you’re not a burden. You’ll never be a burden. Don’t ever think that, ok?”

Slowly, Bobby raised his head and finally looked at him. Without a word, he stared intensely at Yunhyeong’s face like he was searching for something.

“And I know you...” Yunhyeong murmured, meeting Bobby’s gaze with an earnest resolve, hoping that he will come to find whatever the thing he was looking for. “You’re Bobby.”

“…I’m Bobby,” Bobby said lowly, almost to himself. After a moment, he said it again but now with a tone of certainty that surprised Yunhyeong. “I’m Bobby.”

Yunhyeong was not sure if it was the morning light of early spring seeping through the cracks of the curtains in his room that made Bobby’s face slowly lit up like liquid gold. For the first time, he looked so animated, his eyes almost vanishing into two thin slits as his lips curled up. He was grinning so wide that Yunhyeong feel himself doing the same. Suddenly, Bobby reached out with hesitant fingers and touched Yunhyeong’s face, spreading warmth on his cheeks.

“And you’re Yunhyeong,” he whispered.

~0~

Jisoo stood in front of the apartment building, looking up to the window where Yunhyeong’s unit was supposed to be. Her mind flipping through everything she saw and heard while they were in the apartment. There was something in there, her instinct were telling her. Blinking out of her thoughts as her lips curled up mischievously, she turned around and called out the her friends who were already couple of steps ahead of her. The three guys stopped, glancing at her curiously.

“Say… wanna bet on something?”

~0~

Author’s Note:

Finally! It’s done. I wanted to post this up last weekend but I was not happy with the first version of this chapter. It’s a little too angsty for my taste. It felt so out of place with the first three chapters of the story. 

Anyways, hope this is worth the wait. Or is it?

Watching the recent live performances of ikon really helps. I’m so happy to see them so happy and hyped up in their performance (esp. Bobby!!). I’m sure Hanbin is so proud.

Also, I wrote the YunBob moments in this chapter while listening to D.O.’s song, “It’s okay,” it somehow fit to them perfectly.

So what do you think?

~Milkfish


	5. Third Law

** Entangled V – Third Law **

~0~

_ When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body. _

~0~

Yunhyeong had lost count of how many times he glanced at his wristwatch. His lunch break was almost over but there were still no calls or texts or whatever form of validation that Yunhyeong needed to calm his nerves. He has been eyeing his phone like a hawk to its prey, waiting for it to buzz and for the screen to lit up. His index finger has been incessantly tapping to the table enough to annoy and turn away anyone who attempted to sit anywhere near him. 

_ ‘Why aren’t they texting or calling him back?’ _ Yunhyeong thought, clicking his tongue impatiently. It didn’t help that there’s a constant voice in the back of his head that keeps on telling him that it wasn’t a good idea since that morning. He starting to wonder what the hell possessed him to agree on letting Jisoo, of all of people, to look out for Bobby. Well, it’s not like he has a large selection to choose from anyway but still. He always thought that Donghyuk would be the most suitable candidate, given that Bobby seemed to be least bothered by his presence, unfortunately the guy has lectures on Monday. The only saving grace of today’s crazy arrangement was Chanwoo who was also supposed to come over this afternoon but Yunhyeong hasn’t heard from him too. It was either something already happened or Jisoo was purposely doing this to put him on the edge. That girl, really.

Closing his eyes, Yunhyeong took a deep breath repeating the mantra that this was Jisoo, her best friend, no matter how completely baffling her brain works, he knew deep inside that he can trust that girl with his life. Plus, he has an absolutely faith that their youngest would call him if anything serious happened. Yunhyeong just hoped that Bobby was completely fine with all of this. During the weekend, he had patiently and repeatedly explained to Bobby about his work and what was going to happen. After looking more worried than usual and sticking to him a glue for two days, Yunhyeong would like to assume that Bobby understood the situation. He didn’t even make any fuss or say anything this morning. Yunhyeong had an inkling that maybe Bobby was afraid to voice out his concern in front of Jisoo. It was apparent that Jisoo had already made a lasting impression to the poor guy. 

With one last final sigh, Yunhyeong pushed all his worry on the back of his mind as he stood up and went back to work. For now, he needed to focus on his project meeting this afternoon of which success he has been counting on to finally ask his boss for the promotion that he deserves and the raise that he would definitely need now that he had essentially took Bobby under his wing.

After Yunhyeong grabbed his laptop and presentation files from his desk, he beelined to the meeting room and began setting up. It didn’t take him long to finish and all that’s left to do was to wait for others to show up. But minutes passed and no one showed up. Eyebrows furrowing in confusion, he blew up the calendar tab on his email and checked the meeting schedule. It was still on. Yunhyeong close and reopen the tab twice to make sure he wasn’t just seeing things before he went out to ask someone on his team, thinking that maybe there must be a change he wasn’t aware of.

And there was a change. It was a huge one.

“You took me out of my project!?” Yunhyeong exclaimed as he burst in to his boss’ office, partially relieved to know that his boss was in there or his dramatic entrance would be a little anti-climactic. 

“Hello to you too, Song Yunhyeong-ssi.” His boss didn’t even lift his head as he continue to go through the papers in front of him. “Please have a seat.”

“Why?” Yunhyeong demanded, exhaling heavily. He didn’t need a seat. He needed an explanation

His boss licked his crinkly thumb as he tried leafing through some tightly packed document pages. “You were out last week. I saw that we can pull in the schedule for a week or two. So, we did.”

“So, you just went with it and give it someone else? And no one even bothered to ask me if I was ok about it?” Yunhyeong clenched his jaw. He was so close on losing it and his boss’ indifference wasn’t helping his case. “I mean, I, I worked so hard for this project.”

“I know and we’re grateful for your efforts. The client loved the materials you prepared.” His boss tore his eyes away from the papers and finally glanced at Yunhyeong. “Good job.”

Yunhyeong stared at his boss in disbelief for a couple of seconds. “Good job? That’s it? That’s all I get from this?”

“Are you expecting something more?” The wrinkles on the forehead of the old man became more prominent when he raised an eyebrow at Yunhyeong.

“An apology will be a good start.” Yunhyeong gritted.

“Am I sensing a hint of hostility here?”

“I’m sorry, am I being too subtle!?”

His boss paused, eyes narrowing. “Mr. Song, may I remind you that I’m still your boss and you’re the one who went for a vacation in a middle of your project.” Leaning back to his chair, he crossed his arms and legs, giving Yunhyeong a tight-lipped smile. “I would suggest you take a couple more of days off because, clearly, a week was not enough.”

And that was the last straw. Yunhyeong can feel the throbbing of the veins on his neck as he shut his eyes and took a deep breath. In the moment that his eyes were closed, all the times that his friends mocked his company, especially his boss and the countless of times that they pestered him to quit his dead-end job flashed before him. 

“Couple of days? No!” Yunhyeong slammed his hands on the old man’s oak wood table, eyes hard and seething. “Make it forever! Because I quit!” 

~0~

Yunhyeong dumped a brown box, which pretty much sums up his three year stay from that crappy company, at the backseat of his old car with a hefty thud. Wiping the small beads of sweat in forehead with a back of his hand, he closed the door and leaned back on it. He ran his hand through his hair with a sigh, thinking how it ended just like that. Yunhyeong knew that he will eventually leave the company but he never envisioned that it will go the way it did today. It was weird though; he was waiting for the regret to kick in when as soon as his anger towards his boss dwindled down but now, he was about to drive out of the parking lot the regret still never came. Hopefully, it never will.

Surprisingly, Yunhyeong felt lighter thinking about the he doesn’t need to fight for parking spot every morning. No more dim corridor or noisy elevator. No more faulty printer or overheating coffee machine. No more awkward and forced interaction with his co-workers and most importantly no more asshole boss. Yunhyeong couldn’t suppress the chuckle when he recalled how he yelled at his now former boss. It felt so liberating that his body was still tingling until now. It was like he finally let out all of his pent-up frustrations for every shitty thing he needed to put up during his stay at the company.

As liberating as it felt, however, it still doesn’t change the cold hard truth that he was now officially jobless. But for now, Yunhyeong decided to pushed that thought at the back of his mind. It’s not like he would starve, he still has an ample savings at the bank enough to keep him and Bobby afloat for some time. He just needs to find another job before it run out.

Speaking of Bobby, Yunhyeong remembered that he needed to go to the hospital today. He received a message last Saturday from the Kim Jinhwan, the doctor that was referred by the one from Sokcho, asking him for a meeting prior their scheduled check-up. With that in mind, he hopped on in his car, started the engine and drive off for the last time, away from this god-forsaken place.

Yunhyeong was humming to some random song on the radio, halfway to the hospital, when a call came in. He was hoping that it was from Jisoo or Chanwoo since Yunhyeong hasn’t heard anything from the two but it was from Junhoe. Well, at least it wasn’t from the police because that meant nothing _that serious_ happened to Bobby yet.

“Hyung, can you pick me up at the gym after your work?” Junhoe’s distinct voice boomed through the speaker.

“Isn’t Dong-ie supposed to pick you up?”

“He can’t. He’s filling up for someone’s so he’ll be working overtime and I can’t reach Jisoo noona or Chanwoo.”

Yunhyeong frowned. Junhoe’s gym was out of his way to the hospital.

“Can’t you take the bus or a cab?” Yunhyeong asked.

“Hyung, you know I can’t take a public transportation now that I’m famous.”

Yunhyeong rolled his eyes. You see, Junhoe being the free spirit that he is, never tried to pursue anything with the degree he graduated with, which coincidentally the same as Yunhyeong’s. Instead, he chose to be a social media blogger which lead him to becoming a model just recently. He started off during his early years in the university when his popularity started to blow up with his good looks and god tier vocals in his various covers and some original songs he posted online. All these things made him think he’s now some hot-shot celebrity. He maybe popular but he’s not that popular that he cannot take a bus or a cab.

“If you’re that famous maybe you should buy your own car.” Yunhyeong deadpanned. 

“Please, hyung!”

“But I need to be somewhere and you’re out of the way.”

“Pick me up, hyung. I’ll come with you and buy dinner.” Junhoe offered.

“For two days.” Yunhyeong bargained. If he was going to get something out of this, might as well as get a better deal since he needed to start saving money. Besides, Junhoe makes a lot of money anyway.

“Deal.”

~0~

“What do you want?”

Hanbin automatically smiled at the impatient voice of his older friend, Jinhwan, over the phone. He sat up from the couch picked the remote from the table and lowered the television’s volume. He wasn’t even sure what program was on, not that he was watching it anyway.

“Really, not even a fake hello?”

There was shuffling at the other side and distinct sound of papers being flipped through. Hanbin could exactly picture how his hyung was cradling the phone between his cheek and shoulders, as his sharp eyes scanned the profile of one his patient like he was in there in his office.

“Hanbin, if you call just to annoy me, I’m hanging up now—” 

“But Hyung!”

Jinhwan clicked his tongue and sighed. “Then, what do you want?”

“I’m bored.” Hanbin drawled and he was certain that his hyung was rolling his eyes at his office.

“Then go bother, Jennie.”

“She blocked me,” Hanbin moaned, sounding like a child complaining to his parents about how other kids doesn’t want to play with him.

“Good for her,” Jinhwan remarked with slight amusement on his tone. “I should probably do the same.” 

“Hyung!”

“Shouldn’t you still be working?”

“I should but—”

The shuffling stopped.

“You didn’t come to work, didn’t you?” Jinhwan’s voice was flat and disappointed but not at all surprised. It’s not like it was his first time bunking off work and Hanbin didn’t need to guess what he will hear from the older guy next. “Hanbin… just because you’re the CEO’s son doesn’t mean you have the right to slack off and do whatever you want.”

Word for word. Exactly like Hanbin expected. They have been on this far more times than his fingers on both of his hands and feet combined. It baffled Hanbin why until now his hyung never got tired of reminding him about it. Their other friend Jennie had given up long ago telling him that Hanbin that he was a hopeless case, which was a really big deal since that girl worked as a prosecutor. It was either Jinhwan was just doing it out of habit or still believed that patiently advising him not to skip work over and over again would make him eventually do it. Well, maybe. Probably few years more. Definitely not anytime soon.

“I don’t slack off.” A prompt snort came from Jinhwan making Hanbin rolled his eyes. He sighed and leaned back to his couch. God, he loved lazing around if it wasn’t just too boring. “Well, maybe I do but that’s not the point. I never missed a deadline and still get my job done better than anyone else anyway. Why do you think I was able to get away with it?” 

As conceited as it sounded, Hanbin was just stating a fact. He might not have the perfect attendance but he was never the one lacking when it comes to his performance at work or for any particular things that tickle his fancy. 

“Again, for nth time, your high self-regard and big ego is a sign of a serious personality disorder. As a doctor, I prescribe a therapy.”

“Well, my ego is not the only big thing I have.” 

Hanbin chuckled to himself when he heard spluttering noises from the Jinhwan’s end. He could only assume that his hyung dropped his phone. He briefly glanced at his own phone screen just to make sure the call wasn’t dropped.

“I can’t believe you just said that?” Jinhwan’s gruff voice came in after a moment. “You know what? I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“That’s denial, hyung. As a non-doctor and your dear friend, I think you should take you own prescription. ” Hanbin smirked.

“Why am I friends with you again?”

“Because I’m super smart, cool and handsome?”

“Nope. It’s because you’re rich and doesn’t get offended when I psychoanalyze you.” 

“Just because you only have your eyes at some Instagram celebrity that you never met won’t make me any less awesome.” Hanbin teased. He referring to Jinhwan’s secret obsession to some famous guy in social media which he stumbled upon by accident when he borrowed his hyung’s phone one time. From then on, Hanbin make a good use of it to ruffle Jinhwan’s feather. Speaking of that guy, Hanbin felt like he saw him somewhere.

“Whatever floats your boat, Binnie.” A pause. Hanbin heard movement and rustling of papers and folders being whisked away from the table. When Jinhwan’s voice came again, his sounded rushed. “Listen, I know your bored and all but unlike you I still have work to do so I suggest you go find someone else to bother with. Ok?”

Hanbin pulled himself from the couch. “Then see you in a bit.” 

“What!? I just told I still have wor—” 

Smirking to himself, Hanbin ended the call.

~0~

Jinhwan stared at the guy in front of him, who was curiously looking around his office. He already knew his name was Song Yunhyeong as written at the reports and patient’s profile and honestly, if his age wasn’t indicated in there, Jinhwan would have expected him to be someone older. He was actually a year younger than him and quite good-looking in person. He had this mellowed light on his eyes, exuding a responsible and mature aura, Jinhwan noted as he inspected the guy closely. He surmised that Yunhyeong probably took the role of being the caretaker among his friends and family. It must have played a huge factor on why he decided helping someone he didn’t even know.

Satisfied with his first impression, Jinhwan cleared his throat to catch Yunhyeong’s attention. 

“I’m sorry for asking you to come here so suddenly. I just wanted to ask some questions prior the actual session.” Jinhwan began, seamlessly opting his professional voice. He picked up a white folder and turn it over. “I mean, I’ve read the reports from Sokcho about—” 

“Bobby. We’re calling him Bobby for now.” Yunhyeong filled in.

“Yes, I’ve read the reports about Bobby.” Jinhwan nodded. He picked up a pen and crossed out the name placeholder written of the file and hastily wrote ‘Bobby’. “And I know you wanted him to undergo therapy to help him with his anxiety and regain his memory. What I want to know is, are you really sure about this?

Yunhyeong blinked for a few times before his eyes narrowed in confusion. “Uh, what do you mean?”

Jinhwan offered an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. I know you’re probably wondering, why of all people and being a doctor, why would I ask such question. But we’re both aware of what was in the police report. As much as we wanted that it was not the case, given circumstances, do you think it will be good for him to recover his memory?”

Even before Jinhwan worked as neuropsychiatrist, observing other people’s behavior and reaction has always been his second nature. So, it was easy for him to pick up several emotions that passed on Yunhyeong’s face. The most evident was confusion and some sort of ambivalent understanding.

With a sigh, Jinhwan went on to ask his primary reason for calling this meeting. “He did it for a reason, for sure. What if he tried to do it again once he remembers everything?”

For a doctor, Jinhwan knew he sounded slightly pessimistic but he must know these things before he fully commits on this case. Truthfully, Jinhwan personally found this case both interesting and delicate. As much as he had confidence in his skill as a therapist, that can only go just much. Mind is a mysterious thing. Especially for this type of cases, the best help that a patient can receive was from the people around him most of the time.

“I hadn’t considered that… Or maybe I don’t want to consider that.” Yunhyeong lowered his eyes in contemplation. “Honestly, I always thought that he’d realize maybe there’s something more for him to live for. That’s why I decided to help him.”

“And do you really believe that?”

“Yes.” Yunhyeong whispered. “Am I too arrogant to assume that?”

Jinhwan shook his head. “Not at all. It’s just means that you’re very positive person Yunhyeong-ssi. You seemed to be a very passionate man too.” Smiling, Jinhwan said, “Bobby’s so lucky that it was someone like you who found him”.

_ Or maybe it was Bobby who finally found you _ , Jinhwan added to himself, choosing not to further invoke confusion to the guy. If it was Jinhwan, given what he read from all the reports, if he could stretch his hand and restore Bobby’s memory, he wouldn’t do it. It’s much better for him to not to remember. But seeing hopeful certainty on the eyes of the guy who saved him, Jinhwan thought that maybe this Bobby guy had already found something to live for.

~0~

Hanbin automatically pushed himself from the wall he was leaning on as soon as door of Jinhwan’s office slide open.

“Hyung! Finally!” 

Hanbin’s eyes widen when he came face to face with not Jinhwan but the guy he helped out a week ago, staring at him with the same look of surprise on his face. _Song Yunhyeong._ Hanbin clearly remembered his name.

Jinhwan finally appeared with a furrowed brow. “Hanbin, I told you I’m still working. Why—”

“Look what we have here.” Hanbin drawled, playful smile forming on his lips. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Yunhyeong flinched, turning his face away. “I think you’re mistaken.”

“Pretending not to know me now, really?”

“You two knew each other?” Jinhwan asked curiously, his eyes darting between Hanbin and Yunhyeong.

“No/Yes” The two of them chorused.

Hanbin cocked his head, enjoying the situation. “I don’t need to be Jinhwan hyung to know you’re lying.”

“I… I don’t really know you. Thank you, Doc., I gotta go.” He hastily bowed at Jinhwan and walked past Hanbin.

“Do you always run away from people you’ve slept with?” Hanbin asked, following Yunhyeong’s figure. He smirked in satisfaction when he saw the guy stiffened and stop on his tracks.

Yunhyeong turned around, face flushed. “We didn’t sleep together!”

Hanbin was about to say something when suddenly, another guy came and approach Yunhyeong. Hanbin vaguely remember him as one of Yunhyeong’s friend that burst in to his room and saw them in a compromising situation.

“Hyung, are you done?” Yunhyeong’s friend asked him. He turned to Hanbin, his eyes lighting up in recognition. “–Hey it’s the guy you’ve slept with, hyung!”

Hanbin grinned triumphantly at Yunhyeong.

“It was just sleeping. Nothing happened.” Yunhyeong glared at him before looking at Jinhwan with an embarrassed smile. “Please don’t take it out of context.” 

“Hold on, you—” Jinhwan gasped. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, squinting closely at Yunhyeong’s friend. “You’re Juneya_97?” 

“That’s my IG!” The guy, Juneya_97, beamed like so bright that it made Hanbin winced. “He knows me, hyung. Told you, I’m popular now.”

“Yeah, ok. C’mon let’s just get out of here.” Yunhyeong dismissed him. He glared at Hanbin one last time and bowed once again at Jinhwan.

“But, hyung! I’m—” 

“Let’s go!” Yunhyeong forcefully grabbed his friend by his arm and dragged him away.

Hanbin stared at the retreating figures with an amused smile on his lips. “Well, that was interesting.” 

“I can’t believe I finally saw him in person.” Jinhwan said in awe.

Hanbin rolled his eyes and sneering at his older friend. “You know that he’s way too young for you, right?”

“Hey, I’m just a fan. He really makes good song covers.” Jinhwan scoffed at him, offended. “And I’m just three years older. It’s not that much difference besides I look younger than him anyway.”

“And he said he’s just a fan.”

“Whatever. As if you’re any better. Yunhyeong-ssi clearly doesn’t want to do anything with you. What did you do to the poor guy?” 

“Things that you can only imagine doing to your dear internet celebrity?” Hanbin stifled a laugh when Jinhwan look around the hallway to see if there was anyone nearby before he gave him the finger. “Now tell me hyung, why was he here? Is he your patient?”

“I don’t know what’s the deal between you two but that’s none of your business, isn’t it?”

“C’mon.”

“Hanbin, you’re smart enough to know why I can’t tell you.” 

Hanbin groaned in defeat. He was fully aware what his hyung was talking about. Hanbin knew, when it comes to his work, Jinhwan take everything in a grain of salt. No amount of pestering Hanbin do could make the doctor spill information to his direction.

“What is it to you? You’re not the one to take interest on other people.” Jinhwan asked in mild curiosity.

Hanbin thought about it for a moment. It was true. He was not the one who took genuine interest with other people. Sure, there were always some exception that’s why he ended up being friends with Jinhwan and Jennie. Hanbin wasn’t just sure if it’s the same case for Yunhyeong. Given that they only met twice now so, he couldn’t really tell. The only thing that he was certain right now was that the guy was very amusing in Hanbin’s book.

“I have no idea… Maybe that’s why I want to get to know him.”

Jinhwan studied Hanbin for a moment. It was the look that Hanbin was very accustomed to. His hyung was already taking mental notes and working out scenarios in his head.

“Well, I only met him an hour ago and if his aversion to you is any clear indication, I really doubt it'll happen.”

Hanbin was not the one that could be deterred by doubt. He was not also the one who believe in coincidences but somehow, he didn’t mind letting this one slide. What’s life without a little whimsy? There’s a saying that ‘third time’s the charm’, and Hanbin already met Yunhyeong twice so, when they meet again, he’s going to prove that saying right.

Smiling confidently, Hanbin said, “I’ll make it happen, then.”

~0~

Yunhyeong couldn’t believe his luck, or lack thereof, that he will ever saw that Hanbin guy again. What is happening to this day? When did his life get so hectic and dynamic? Not so long ago, he was living in his own little world of routine and structure- working on weekdays, hanging out with his friends on Friday nights, date with his girlfriend on weekends. Steady and predictable. Just like how he liked it. But now, it felt like that his life was thrown into a washing machine with whites and colored laundry mixed together. He broke up with his girlfriend, has recently quit his job and met again the most annoying person he never wanted to see again. Is he cursed or something? He was seriously considering to drop by and see a fortuneteller to get some charm to drove all of his misfortune away.

“Hyung—”

“If you’re gonna say something about what happened back there, don’t.” Yunhyeong interrupted promptly, eyes burning holes to the windshield.

“I’m not. I was going to say to ease up on your right foot, hyung. You don’t want to end up with an over-speeding ticket now, do you?”

There must be something really wrong with this day because Junhoe was now the moral voice reminding him to abide to the traffic rules. He wasn’t exactly sure why he became so agitated with his encounter with Hanbin again. There was just something about his all-knowing eyes, cocky smirk and snobby disposition that seemed rub Yunhyeong in the worst possible way, even though, in some weird way, the guy essentially had helped him out when he got smashed in a gay bar, out of all places. 

“Sorry,” Yunhyeong sighed, his tight grip on the steering wheel loosening as he slowed down. “It was just… so many things happened today.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“I don’t even know where to start.”

“You can start with that box on your back seat.”

Yunhyeong briefly glanced at Junhoe in mild surprise, cracking a small smile.

_ So, he did notice after all.  _

~0~

Yunhyeong stood with an odd trepidation in front of his apartment’s door. The only thing that was separating him from the person that he has been worrying about throughout the day. Up until now, he never really received any calls or text from Chanwoo and Jisoo so he really had no idea what to expect when he opens the door. All he knew was that it shouldn’t be any worse than all the things that happened today, given that there’s no police car parked in front of the building.

“What are you waiting for, hyung? Open the door,” Junhoe huffed.

“It’s just… I don’t know what’s waiting for me inside.”

Junhoe groaned impatiently. “You’ll know it when you open the door. C’mon hyung, your box is heavy.”

‘Here goes nothing’, Yunhyeong mumbled to himself, swinging the door open.

An eerie silence greeted Yunhyeong when he entered, Junhoe tailing behind him. He stood for couple of seconds on the foyer in confusion, somewhat relieved but a little disappointed. There were few scenarios that he had on mind and none of those was like this one. Plus, this weird atmosphere raised more questions than answer. The whole apartment was quiet but for a faint noise that suspiciously sound like incessant mouse clicks. Cautiously, Yunhyeong made his way to the living room, only to see Jisoo, Chanwoo and Bobby, hunched over his coffee table, their eyes fixated on the computer screen and their fingers dancing expertly across the keyboard.

‘Unbelievable,’ Yunhyeong thought. He was so worried the whole day and the three of them were just playing online games?

Yunhyeong cleared his throat. “Excuse me?” 

Bobby perked up so instantly upon hearing his voice that it surprised Yunhyeong. He suddenly jumped out from floor, completely abandoning his game, and run towards Yunhyeong with a big toothy smile on his face that always make his eyes almost disappear. Before Yunhyeong could even realize what was going to happen, he was tackled by Bobby with a big excited hug that he almost dropped the take outs he was holding.

“You’re finally back.” Bobby mumbled softly against him.

Everything was too sudden that it stunned Yunhyeong so much that his mind blacked out. He couldn’t think of anything else. Not his frustration or his now jobless status or even his annoyance to that Hanbin guy. He didn’t even react when Jisoo smirked at him and Chanwoo handed her a couple of bills. Did they bet on him again? Somehow, he didn’t care. It was like all of his thoughts were knocked out of his head and the only thing that’s left with him was a feeling. 

The feeling of Bobby’s arms around him.

The feeling of his soft skin against him.

And the feeling of Bobby’s warm breath tickling his ear.

If this was what will greet him whenever he gets home…

_ Bobby is so lucky that it was someone like you who found him. _

Yunhyeong was starting to think that it was the other way around.

~0~


	6. Redshift

** Entangled VI – Redshift **

_ Redshift is a phenomenon where electromagnetic radiation (such as light) from an object undergoes an increase in wavelength. Whether or not the radiation is visible, "redshift" means an increase in wavelength, equivalent to a decrease in wave frequency and photon energy, in accordance with, respectively, the wave and quantum theories of light. _

~0~

Something was wrong.

Bobby wasn’t dumb. He might seem like it, look like it and act like it but he wasn’t dumb. Not that dumb to say the least. He doesn’t talk much but he observes and notice things too. Bobby knew that there was something bothering Yunhyeong. Even though he just knew him for a few weeks he could tell since all those times were spent with him looking and following Yunhyeong around. He has been like that after talking with Bobby’s doctor, Kim Jinhwan the day before. He really wished he heard what they were discussing about but they were talking in low and hush tone that it was barely audible from where he was sitting yesterday. It was probably about Bobby anyway so he was wondering why Yunhyeong was not telling him about it because Bobby never want to be the reason of something that troubles Yunhyeong. He doesn’t like it, not one bit.

Bobby blinked off his thoughts when Yunhyeong caught him staring.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

Bobby held his gaze for a moment, debating of asking what he was really thinking about but he panicked the last second and opt to divert his attention to the almost untouched lunch in front of him.

He heard Yunhyeong sigh and shifted his weight on the sit in front of him. “You don’t like the food, don’t you? Does it taste bad? Want me order something?”

Bobby perked up, mildly alarmed. It was not like that. The food was good. It was great even especially since Yunhyeong cooked it for him. He likes all the food Yunhyeong made for him. Bobby shook his head vehemently and took a mouthful in an attempt to prove his point, not wanting Yunhyeong to get the wrong idea because that was last thing Bobby wanted.

“Are you sure?” Yunhyeong furrowed his eye brows. He put down his chop stick and scratch the back of his head apologetically. “Sorry, I just scraped out whatever we had at the fridge. Which reminds me, I should probably buy some groceries later.”

“The food is delicious. I like it.”

“You do? But you barely touched your food.” Yunhyeong pointed out, eyes flickering at Bobby’s still full bowl. He sat up straight and looking slightly concerned. “Is there something bothering you? You know you can tell me.”

“No. I’m good.” Bobby paused for a moment before he lowered his gaze. “What about you? Is… is something wrong?”

“Me? What makes you think that something’s wrong?”

“Yesterday… after talking to the doctor you seemed… odd.” Bobby mumbled. “Is it something about me?” 

“No. No. Not per se.” Yunhyeong was silent for a second before Bobby heard him cleared his throat. “I mean, it’s just your doctor suggested that it would help you if you could go out sometime so you can get used to other people you don’t know and I think so too. So… wanna come with me pick up some groceries?”

Bobby looked up at Yunhyeong with wide eyes. He was a little surprised with the sudden suggestion and about the fact that it was the reason that has been bugging Yunhyeong. It seemed to him that it was something more. 

“But it’s ok if you’re still not comfortable with it. There’s no hurry.” 

Yunhyeong visibly deflated. Bobby must have been dumbly staring at him for quite a long while for him to take his silence as refusal. Honestly, he was not exactly sure about it either. Not including his trip with the hospital, it would be the first time he will be out in a public place with steep chance of having filled with many people. The longest time he spent with other people that was not Yunhyeong was with his friends and even though it was very taxing not to panic, it was a huge milestone for him to survive that day. Or maybe he was more afraid of angering Yunhyeong’s best friend Jisoo. Even with her small stature and pretty face, that girl exudes a strong vibe that you shouldn’t mess with her. Bobby also think that Chanwoo’s presence that time was some form of salvation because he resembles Yunhyeong a lot and, of course, he introduced Bobby to online gaming which astonishingly felt familiar to him. He could say he was slowly getting better however it still not guarantee that Bobby would not react negatively in a new a place.

Although, he was going to be with Yunhyeong and that weighed more than all of Bobby’s doubt put together. Plus, the thought of spending time with Yunhyeong outside his apartment has some exciting ring on it.

Bobby shook his head, beaming widely. “Are you sure? Can I really go with you?”

“Yes.” Yunhyeong nodded, smiling in relief. “So, you can get the food that you like too.”

“But I don’t have money.”

“I do. So, don’t worry about it.”

Bobby frowned. He was already free loading on Yunhyeong. He has been paying for all his hospital fees and everything. He really did not like the idea of Yunhyeong spending more money for him especially now that he recently quit his job. Somehow, despite Yunhyeong’s firm assurance to Bobby that it was it because of him, he still felt that in some way he has something to do with it. It made him feel bad about himself. Yunhyeong was doing everything for him even though it was not his responsibility to do so. Bobby knew he could never repay Yunhyeong but he promised that he would make it up for him one way or another. 

“Maybe we can go drop by the mall and pick you some clothes too.” Yunhyeong wondered.

“Why? I can just use yours. You have a lot.” Bobby reasoned, not fond of the idea of additional expenses.

“Aren’t they a little small on you? And it’s nice that you could have your own stuffs.”

Bobby looked down at the white V-neck shirt he was wearing. He and Yunhyeong almost have the same body build. It was not small. It fitted alright. Even if it wasn’t, Bobby was more that fine with it since it was Yunhyeong’s.

“I don’t want new clothes.”

“Why?”

“They don’t smell like you.”

Bobby grinned, satisfied with the Yunhyeong’s mouth hanging open. He picked up his bowl and continue to eat his lunch with a new found appetite. 

Red looks good on Yunhyeong’s face.

~0~

Bobby pushed the already half-filled cart closely behind Yunhyeong into the pasta and noodles aisle. His eyes followed the other guy as he knowledgeably browses from one brand to another, pulling one out to study it for a moment before putting it back or dropping it to cart. Yunhyeong has been like that since they got into the grocery to store half an hour ago. Bobby watched Yunhyeong’s eyes glimmer in excitement, narrowed in concentration and blink into decision from product to product he had on his list. Yunhyeong’s enthusiasm and passion with such mundane and domestic thing was so contagious that Bobby didn’t have a chance to think that there were other people around. It was a side of Yunhyeong that Bobby was seeing for the first time although he was ambivalent between being surprised or not at all, having seen Yunhyeong cook at home he shouldn’t be expecting anything less from him when it comes to shopping for ingredients.

“You must really like to cook,” Bobby couldn’t help himself on saying as he watched Yunhyeong so focused on deciding which brand of cream of mushroom he would get. They were on the canned goods aisle now.

Yunhyeong snapped out of his zone and smiled sheepishly at Bobby. “My parents own a restaurant. I grew up helping them out most of the time. So, I guessed I picked it up from there.” He shook his head and put down the one can on the cart and put the other one back at the rack. He moved on to the next section and Bobby pushed the cart gently behind him. “I always try to cook whenever I can but I’m always caught up with work so I usually ended up getting a takeout or just eat outside. But now since I have free time, I’ll be cooking more often…” Yunhyeong paused and look at Bobby. “Feel free to tell me if you get sick of my cooking, okay?”

Bobby was about to say that he doubts that it will happen but Yunhyeong cut him off with ruffling his hair and a chuckle before moving down the aisle. They went like that for another thirty minutes or so with Yunhyeong bursting to some random anecdote about him or his friends. He also told him the dishes he wanted to try and how to tell if the meat was fresh. Bobby listened to every word. He really liked knowing things about the other guy. His stories or just any little things he does and say. It gave Bobby a sense of closeness and it made him feel warm like he was wrapped around in a blanket on a rainy day. And he was grateful that Yunhyeong did not expect him to say anything, only looking at him to see if he was still listening.

They were on the fruits section of the grocery and Yunhyeong was surveying the green apples with great interest when he suddenly turned to Bobby

“Hey we’d been going around for a while now. You should pick something you like too, you know.” 

Bobby thought about it for a moment. He looked at the peaches in front of him and absentmindedly pick one up. “I… I don’t know what I like,” he said.

“What about this, you pick anything that caught your eye. If you like it then that’s good. If you don’t then we’ll pick another one next time,” Yunhyeong suggested.

Bobby nodded. It was a sound idea. 

“Do you like peaches?” He asked, holding the fruit out to Yunhyeong.

“Uh. I do?”

“Then let’s start with that.” Bobby smiled, picking up a pack of the fruit and put it in the cart.

Bobby couldn’t suppress the smile on his face as he carried some of the paper bags as they made their way back to the car after finishing up their shopping. He thought that this little trip to the grocery turned out to be better than all of the possible scenario that he had on mind. But just when Bobby think that they would be going back straight to the apartment after they dropped all of the bags in the trunk of the car, the other guy apparently had a different idea. 

Another thing that Bobby came to learn was that Yunhyeong can be extremely tenacious when he had his mind set on something. Although Bobby pretty much put up a good fight which made him realize he was quite stubborn too himself. However, despite his adamant objection, Yunhyeong still managed to drag him out to buy some clothes. The other guy pointed out that he should at least get some new pairs of undergarments making Bobby choked his refusal and flushed in embarrassment. As for other clothes, the two wounded up in a compromise that they will share whatever they would end up buying.

As it turned out, Yunhyeong not only have an eye for ingredients but also for fashion. He made Bobby spent quite some time to try different shirts, pants and some other things that Bobby didn’t even know what to call. Yunhyeong bought him a pair of new shoes too which surprisingly Bobby didn’t mind like the other things that Yunhyeong got for him. He seemed to like shoes somehow.

The sky was already greyish blue outside when they exited the store with a handful of bags on each of their hand. They were walking down the block back to the parking lot with Bobby lagging a step behind Yunhyeong when the other abruptly stopped on his tracks making Bobby to jerked into halt too. He looked around, finally noticing their surroundings. They were on a busy side street down the block with a lot of open shops with their colorful signages starting to buzzed into light. There were a lot of people meandering around too which made Bobby mildly conscious and inched closer to Yunhyeong.

“They’re cute, aren’t they?” Yunhyeong said with soft wonder in his voice.

Pulling back his attention to Yunhyeong, Bobby noted that they stopped in front of a pastry shop and he saw him looking at cake displays through the glass divider. Leaning closely, Bobby’s eyes travelled to the different variety of cakes on the stand. They all looked delicious and too sweet and too beautiful that you almost don’t want to eat them up. Bobby hummed in thought and in agreement, glancing back at Yunhyeong who was still staring at the displays with marvel in his eyes and something akin to nostalgia as far as he could tell. It sparked curiosity and raised few questions on Bobby’s mind. He was about to ask the other guy about it when Yunhyeong suddenly turned to him, pushing his question back down his throat. Whatever Bobby saw on his eyes few seconds ago vanished as if it was just a trick of light.

_ What is it? _

“You know what, since we’re already here, let’s eat out,” Yunhyeong told him, smiling. “I know a good restaurant nearby. C’mon.”

But Bobby didn’t move, he was still thinking about what he just saw. When he finally snapped out of his musings, the other guy was already couple of steps away. There was a sudden rise of panic on his chest, like he was out in the open and Yunhyeong was getting farther away. His feet automatically skipped over to catch up with Yunhyeong and when he did, he instinctively reached out and hold on to his hand.

Yunhyeong wheeled back with a puzzled expression on his face. “Bobby? What are you doing?”

“I… I don’t know. I just want to hold your hand.”

Yunhyeong self-consciously glance around for a moment before settling back to Bobby. “You can’t hold my hand here, Bobby.”

“Why?” Bobby scrunched his face in confusion, looking around too. “Other people are doing it too,” he pointed out.

“They’re different.”

“How?”

Yunhyeong’s flickered uneasily to their hands before looking away. “It’s…just… we’re both guys.”

“Is that wrong?” Bobby asked, tilting his head.

Yunhyeong shook his head. “No. it’s just not normal for other people. I mean it’s… it’s complicated.”

“What’s complicated with that?” Bobby frowned. “I just want to hold your hand.”

“Bobby, no okay?” Yunhyeong sighed in exasperation. “Let’s talk about this at home. The restaurant is on this way.” He wiggled his hand out of Bobby’s hold, turning around.

Bobby froze as his hand fell back to his side. His shoulder slumped as he stared at his hand with wide eyes. _What just happened?_ He asked himself. He stood there motionless, overwhelmed by the shock of the rejection he couldn’t understand. When Bobby finally lifted his head up, he could no longer see Yunhyeong’s back on the sea of strangers whipping past around him. 

_ Where is he? _

Bobby could feel his breathing rising from his chest as he looked wildly around searching for Yunhyeong’s familiar figure among the crowd. He started trembling, heartbeat drumming on his rib cage. His vision slowly becoming blurry like he was suddenly submerged underwater and the noise become distant leaving only a ringing sound on his ears. Bobby gasped for air as he blindly staggered to some random direction until he wound back up in front of the pastry shop. He shut his eyes tightly and pressed his hands to his ears, wishing for the ringing to stop.

“-obby! Bobby! Bobby!” 

Bobby’s eyes snapped open and there was Yunhyeong’s frantic face in front of him, suddenly he was back to the time when he saw Yunhyeong after he woke up in the hospital. The ringing stopped and he could finally breathe again.

“Are you okay?” Yunhyeong asked hoarsely. “Oh god. I’m… I’m sorry. I thought I lost you. Why didn’t you follow me?”

Bobby exhaled in relief, staring at Yunhyeong. “You came back,” he whispered. “I thought you left me.”

“No. No. Why would I leave you?” Yunhyeong protested, eyebrows creasing in disbelief. “I’d never do that,” he said.

Bobby smiled at that, feeling all the tension on his body slowly dissipate.

He studied Bobby for a moment before sighed, extending his hand. “Here you can hold my hand. You can hold it whenever you want.”

“But you said, it’s not normal… for us,” Bobby said lowering his gaze. 

“Yeah, it’s not.” Yunhyeong answered making Bobby frown. But then he felt a firm and warm hand wrapped around his own. It was Yunhyeong’s. When Bobby looked up, he was smiling at him.

“It’s special,” he heard him say.

~0~

It was late. Bobby didn’t need to glanced up the clock at the night stand to know what time it was. He could just tell that it was almost midnight but he his mind was still busy replaying back what just happened today, even though it was a lot, even though it was exhausting. Maybe since Bobby has his memory forgotten he has so much space up in his head to fill up. He could still hear the stories that Yunhyeong told him. He could still list all the new things he learned about Yunhyeong. He could still feel the heat of Yunhyeong’s hand and how it fit to his own. Bobby was wondering if Yunhyeong was also awake right now thinking the same thing as he was when, as if on cue, he heard a noise coming from the living room.

Bobby silently slipped through the covers and went to the door, cracking a small opening. He couldn’t exactly see what was happening but he could hear some rustling noise and the lamp beside the sofa flickering open.

“Can’t sleep?” A female voice slurred.

“Jisoo?” Yunhyeong groaned. “It’s late. What are you doing here?”

Bobby only heard unintelligible response from Jisoo before Yunhyeong’s voice came again.

“Are you drunk?”

“Just had a few drinks.”

Bobby could hear sound of someone collapsing down on something. He assumed that it was Jisoo slumping down on the smaller sofa. Yunhyeong’s string of shushing noise quickly followed. Bobby vaguely remembered Yunhyeong reminding him that his friends randomly drop by to his apartment so he should not be surprised to see them popping in whenever but he never thought they would be crashing even in the dead of the night.

“Can I sleep on your couch?” He heard Jisoo asked.

“What?” Yunhyeong whispered. “You know you can’t do that. It’s where I sleep now.”

“Oh… right. Then let me sleep with you.” 

Bobby’s eyes widened after hearing that. He was starting to think if he should be really eavesdropping on the two. He wasn’t exactly sure why he was listening in the first place. But something was telling him that he should in case of… _In case of what?_ Bobby asked himself but he didn’t know the answer either. He really wished he could see what happening in there.

“Jisoo!” Yunhyeong yelled lowly, snapping Bobby’s attention back to the best friends on the living room.

“What’s the problem?” Jisoo drawled. “The couch is big enough for the both of us. And it’s not something we never done before.” 

There was a shuffling sound for a moment before Yunhyeong’s annoyed voice came in again. “That won’t work. I’ll take you home.”

“I don’t wanna… I’m tired. I wanna sleep here.” Jisoo declared dragging each word longer than normal. Then Bobby heard sound of movement, then came Yunhyeong’s sound of protest. There seemed to have some small commotion for a few moments before Jisoo’s voice came again.

“Told you, we can fit. See its still… comfy.”

“You’re a witch!” Bobby heard Yunhyeong huffed petulantly.

“A witch that you love so much.” 

“Starting to regret that now. Gosh, you stink.” 

“Oh, buck up, you.”

After that Bobby heard a clicking sound which he assumed the living room lamped was turned off and there were only faint humming of refrigerator’s motor coming down the hallway. The silence stretched out for a while that Bobby thought that the two had already fallen asleep when suddenly Jisoo’s quiet voice made him stay from where he was hiding.

“I received your text. How is he?”

There was long pause before Yunhyeong answer came. “He… seemed okay when we got home. A bit shaken up but he’s fine, I guess.”

“What about you? How are you?” Jisoo asked.

“I don’t know…” Yunhyeong murmured softly that Bobby almost missed it.

“Is that why your still awake?”

Yunhyeong’s answer came again after long drag of silence. His voice was low and hollow. “It’s just… I can’t get my mind off of Bobby’s look when I found him. He… looked so distraught and afraid. What if… what if I really lost him?”

“You didn’t so don’t think about it,” was Jisoo’s sharp response that made Bobby questioned if she was really drunk in the first place.

“You know what his doctor said to me?” There was brief shuffling of sheets from the couch before Yunhyeong continued. “People like Bobby… they’re whole world revolve around trust because that’s all they have. It’s very important to them. Bobby needed someone to trust… and in this case, it’s me. It feels like a lot of pressure. What if… what if I can’t handle it.”

Bobby slowly slide down to the floor after hearing that. He sat there with his back pressed at the wall beside the small crack of the bedroom’s door. So, that was the one that was really bothering Yunhyeong. That was what his doctor said to him yesterday. And now, with what happened earlier, Bobby was certain that Yunhyeong was blaming himself for it. 

“You’ve been with him for like more than two weeks and you’re still thinking that you can’t?”

“Because it’s not simple… Bobby’s different.”

Different. It was the second time he heard Yunhyeong said that word today and they both refer to Bobby in some way. He couldn’t help on feeling there was something more that he didn’t know as he hug his legs to his body, letting his head rest atop of his knees. 

“How?” He heard Jisoo asked.

Yunhyeong exhaled loudly. “He just is.”

“Yunhyeong-ie…” Jisoo’s voice was soft and tender. It was the first time Bobby heard her sounded like that. Most of the times she just sounded bossy and domineering. “The way I see it, I think the problem is not Bobby’s trust in you. It’s you trusting yourself. Why is that? Why are you always doubting yourself?”

Bobby waited for Yunhyeong to answer but it never came. It was Jisoo who spoke again.

“I’m telling you, you got this. Don’t beat yourself up on what happened. No one’s at fault. Ease up with yourself cause you owe it to you more than anyone else.”

It was that time that Bobby realized that Yunhyeong’s and Jisoo’s relationship ran deeper than what he thought. He already knew that they were best friends and they were very close but it seemed to be more than that. It was more than the pranks and the bickering, it was more than bets and embarrassing Yunhyeong. It was much more than what anyone can see. They have this intimacy that was reserved for the two of them alone where they can be vulnerable with each other. Bobby couldn’t help but to feel a tinge of envy. He wondered if he also has a friend like Jisoo in his life. He wondered if he could ever have the same connection with Yunhyeong.

“So, alcohol can make you so wise now?” Yunhyeong chuckled. “But thank you. You’re my best friend for a reason apparently.”

“Hush you. You know you’re lucky to have me.” 

There was low rustling noise for a few second and then Bobby could hear nothing but his own breathing. He still waited for a moment with his back still pressed up at the wall beside the door, digesting everything the he heard from Yunhyeong and Jisoo, before he crawled out where he was sitting. With careful steps, Bobby quietly crept towards the living room. The room was dim, with only faint light coming from hallway but it was enough for him to make out the outline of Yunhyeong and Jisoo on the couch. It was enough for him see Jisoo’s arms wrapped around Yunhyeong. And it was enough for him to see the contented expression on Yunhyeong’s sleeping face.

Bobby doesn’t know why there was a weak tug strumming on his chest as he took in the scene before him. He stood there in stillness, obscured by shadows for unknown length of time until an epiphany dawn upon him, casting the shades away from his eyes. With one final look, he slowly inch back to the bedroom carrying a firm resolve deep within his heart. 

Bobby decided that he would get better. 

He would get better enough that Yunhyeong would not have to worry about him. He would get better enough to show Yunhyeong that he could rely on him too. And he would get better enough that he wouldn’t be standing steps away from Yunhyeong while he sleeps. 

Someday, Bobby would make sure he will be there right next to him.

~0~

Author’s Note:

YUNBOB!!! So late right? I was a zombie last weekend fixing a self-inflicted issue at work. Gosh, I wish I could tell fifteen year-old me not to choose engineering as a career path. LOL.

Anyways, here it is. I’m going on for a character development so I hope I did just that. What do you think?

I haven’t reread this chapter so, there should be a lot of mistakes. Kindly ignore all of those for now.

Kindly leave a comment if its not too much trouble. It would mean a lot to me. 


	7. Beat

Entangled VII – Beat

  


_ Beat, in physics, the pulsation caused by the combination of two waves of slightly different frequencies. The principle of beats for sound waves can be demonstrated on a piano by striking a white key and an adjacent black key at the bass end of the keyboard. The resulting sound is alternately soft and loud—that is, having characteristic pulsations, or throbs, called beats. _

~0~

“You dragged me… to a gym?” 

Hanbin stared at the bold characters printed at the huge banner hanging atop the gym’s entrance, Khan Fitness and Martial Art Gym, it reads. With a weary sigh, he narrowed his eyes at Jinhwan who looked suspiciously unperturbed notwithstanding the flagrant randomness and oddity of the current scenario. Hanbin or perhaps anyone would never put Jinhwan and gym in the same sentence much more be within proximity with each other. He would never expect that his hyung, out of all the possible places, would take him to a gym after barging into his apartment so uncharacteristically early in the morning and hauled his ass out of the bed. It was not like Hanbin detests going to the gym like his hyung. On the contrary, it was one of the things that he religiously enjoyed doing as far as he remembered. Jinhwan however… 

“No need to state the obvious, Bin-a. I can see and read just fine,” Jinhwan waved him off.

Hanbin blinked owlishly, still lost with the implication. “Hyung, I mean, this is a martial art gym…”

“Again, I can read the sign.”

“But you never go to a gym.” Hanbin scratched his head staring at his older friend, face scrunched up. “You never exercise.”

“Now, now, Hanbin-a. I’m a doctor. I need to be in good shape to set a good example to my patients.” Jinhwan turned to him, wiggling his index finger like he was chastising a child.

“And you just had this epiphany now?”

Hanbin was not buying the doctor card. He was sure there was some form of underlying and self-serving motive to this ridiculous idea. Hanbin was just not sure what role his hyung wanted him to play. 

“You know what they say, better late than never. Common, we should go in.” 

“But why here and not the one where I’m already a member of?” Hanbin groaned, his exhausted eyes following Jinhwan’s movement.

“You know sometimes a change is good. So, quit whining. Maybe you’ll like this place.” Jinhwan lectured lightly punching his arm. He shouldered his gym bag before pushing Hanbin towards the gym’s entrance. 

Hanbin highly doubt it but let himself be pushed anyway. His curiosity on what kind of shenanigan Jinhwan was concocting was enough for him to play his game even for a while.

Once inside, Jinhwan expertly maneuvered to the receptionist like he has been doing this for all his life. Hanbin heard the older talking about some online reservations for the two of them and enrollment requirements to the overly enthusiastic-looking guy behind the counter. He tuned in half-attention at the conversation and he was mildly impressed that Jinhwan seemed to have planned this premeditatedly.

Shortly after, the two of them was left to their own devices and Hanbin finally let himself to look around as he lagged behind the older. The inside of the gym was fairly big. It has a center hallway with one side you have the default gym equipment while the boxing rings and training mat where on other side. There were also some rooms at the far end of the gym. Hanbin guessed that they must be used to some specialized martial art classes. Hanbin’s gaze was reaching across the room to read the signs to confirm his assumption when he suddenly bumped to Jinhwan who he didn’t noticed had already stop in front of him.

Hanbin stepped back complaining to Jinhwan that he should not do that when he knew there was someone behind him especially in a place like this. When Hanbin got no response from the older guy, he glanced at him and saw him looking around the gym. Hanbin followed his gaze and it appeared that he was not looking at on anything in particular but he was mostly eyeing the people in the gym.

“Hyung, are you looking for someone here?” Hanbin asked, tapping Jinhwan on his shoulder to get his attention.

“No…” Jinhwan answered distractedly, eyes still on the hunt. “I’m just looking where should I start?”

Hanbin crinkled his nose at the other guy. He paused in contemplation, wheels on his head cranking for a recent event that he could associate with this strange behavior until everything clicked in to him. 

“Oh my god hyung, don’t tell me that this is where…?” Hanbin exclaimed, facing Jinhwan. “You’re stalking him now? You know that’s illegal.”

Jinhwan turned to him, affronted. He glared at Hanbin for a moment the he faltered and avoided his gaze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just happened to hear from someone that this is a good place if you want to learn Jiu Jitsu.”

“Someone? You mean from Song Yunhyeong.” Hanbin supplied flatly before his lips twisted in mild amusement. “Wow, hyung. I can’t believe that you’re this obsessed and… creepy.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault that I have sharp hearing and heard them talking over the phone. All I did after is make a small talk and ask some harmless questions. If you think that’s creepy then you friended with the wrong guy.”

Hanbin was stunned. He can’t believe that his hyung has this side of him. Rolling his eyes, he said, “Then you shouldn’t have dragged me here with you, hyung.”

“I needed someone to act as a buffer. In this case, that’s you. It won’t be that hard. You just needed to act as your bratty self,” Jinhwan explained. Then his eyes caught something and tugged Hanbin to where the boxing rings and training mats where. “Ooh, I think he’s over there. Let’s go.”

Hanbin scoffed at Jinhwan as they neared a tall familiar figure. Standing, was one of Song Yunhyeon’s friend wearing a Gi, taking a gulp from his water bottle. He looked like he was in the gym for some time now. Hanbin eyed Jinhwan on sideways, he caught him staring at guy with some kind fascination that almost made him gagged. Not wanting to dragged this situation any longer, Hanbin elbowed Jinhwan.

“H-hey!” Jinhwan stammered in impulse. Hanbin bit his lips from laughing. But hey, it served its purpose. It caught the attention of the guy.

The guy in Gi turned to them, eyes darting between the two of them until recognition kicked in. “Oh, hi! You’re doctor from the hospital and my fan! And you’re Kim Hanbin.” 

_ My fan? _ Hanbin could not stopped himself on smirking at that. This guy was something else too. His hyung has some weird taste in men.

“Uh, right.” Jinhwan cleared his throat, composing himself with a smile. “I believe I haven’t really introduced myself. I’m Kim Jinhwan.”

“Koo Junhoe. Nice to meet you Jinhwan… hyung. You’re my hyung right?” Koo Junhoe offered a hand then took it back to scratch the back of his neck, looking shyly at Jinhwan. “Sorry, is it ok to call you, hyung? I always wanted to really get along with one of my fans.”

“Well, I’d prefer you call me babe.” Hanbin heard Jinhwan mumbled under his breath.

“Sorry, what?”

“I mean, sure you can call me hyung,” Jinhwan said, smiling bashfully. “So… is Yunhyeong-ssi here with you?”

“Oh, no, hyung haven’t been coming since he’s been taking care of Bobby-hyung.”

“Yes. Right, Bobby.”

Hanbin perked up in full attention on that exchange _. Song Yunhyeong? Taking care of Bobby? Who’s Bobby?_ Apparently Jinhwan knew this Bobby guy too. As far as he can remember, Yunhyeong lives alone in his apartment but before Hanbin could butt in, Junhoe cut him off.

“Also, he’s been busy with job interviews recently.”

_ Job interviews? _

“Hold on, does that mean that he doesn’t have a job and looking for one right now?” Hanbin abruptly asked causing the other two turn their attention to him.

“Yes. Why are you asking?” Junhoe tilted his head innocently.

Hanbin bit his lips not wanting to smirk smugly. Hanbin knew exactly how his third meeting with Song Yunhyeong would be as a plan formed in his head. He glanced at Jinhwan who was giving him a knowing look as if he could read his mind. Well, Hanbin would never learn of this news if it wasn’t from Jinhwan dragging him here because of his borderline obsession to his SNS crush. So, as sign of gratitude, Hanbin would return the favor. 

“Nothing,” Hanbin shrugged masking his expression with nonchalance. “You know… Jinhwan hyung has been wanting to learn Jiu Jitsu. He’s really been into mixed martial arts lately.”

Junhoe instantly brightened up turning to Jinhwan with enthusiasm. “Really? Me too! Is that why you’re here?”

“Will it be ok for you to help him get started?”

“I’d be glad too! But what about you?”

“Don’t mind me,” Hanbin waved him off amicably. “Something urgent came up and I gotta go.” Leaning closer to Jinhwan, he whispered on his ear, “Jiu Jitsu is a contact sport, hyung. Now we’re even. Enjoy!”

Then before anyone could say anything, Hanbin turned around and started to walk away.

“Oh, before I forgot,” Hanbin called out from a distance. “You should start calling me hyung too, Junhoe-ya.”

As soon as Hanbin got back to his apartment, the first thing that he did was to look for Kim Jisoo’s calling card.

~0~

“It’s nice to see you out,” Jisoo handed Yunhyeong the drink that he ordered before settling on the seat across her best friend. 

Yunhyeong mumbled and inaudible ‘thanks’ and smiled. “It’s been a while, isn’t it?”

Jisoo only sighed and took a small sip from her own drink. It was true though; this was the first time he saw and met Yunhyeong outside alone for almost a month now. The last time that she remembered he was out with Yunhyeong was the night he broke up with her girlfriend and there were a lot of things that followed after that she could only see her best friend in his apartment and now, he has someone living with him there. Jisoo put down her cup and stared at Yunhyeong looking dashing in his white long sleeve dress shirt and red necktie. She knew he had some job interviews around the area of the law firm she works at, that was why they managed to meet up for a short drink on some random café.

“So, how did it go?” Jisoo still asked even though the result was painfully obvious by the looks of it.

Yunhyeong sighed and turned his gaze at the street outside. “Can’t believe that it would be this hard to get a new job.”

There was no sound of regret on his voice but Jisoo can hear the disappointment as clear as one fine spring day.

“What’s the hurry anyway? Did your savings run out already?”

“No. But I don’t want to wait for it to run out before a new job.”

“That’s so you…” Jisoo mused, playing with the straw of her apple cider juice drink. “Always planning ahead, worrying for something that has yet to come.”

“Nothing wrong with that, right?” Yunhyeong glanced at Jisoo with shrug.

“Sure, of course.” Jisoo licked her lips, pausing for a moment. “What I’m saying is that maybe you should this time to… you know, explore… do things.”

Yunhyeong lightly shook his head. “I can’t do that right now… There’s Bobby”

“Then do it with him. Who knows? It might help him too,” Jisoo urged. It was not that she did not support her best friend on what he was doing with his life especially on his career. She just did not want Yunhyeong to waste his potential to something he was doing just to get by. Jisoo always believed that Yunhyeong was meant to do great things in life. But that’s his decision to make and Jisoo will support him no matter what if it comes down to it. “And don’t worry about money. Chanwoo’s filthy rich and that cheeky brat won’t let his favorite hyung starve.”

“What? I can’t do that with Chanwoo-ya. That’s too much.” Yunhyeong turned to him looking aghast with suggestion. “Hang on, what about you? Shouldn’t it be you? You’re my best friend!”

“Well,” Jisoo grinned cheekily at Yunhyeong. “If you really want a new job, I can help you find one.”

Yunhyeong rolled his eyes and was about to retort when Jisoo felt her phone buzzing on her pocket. 

“Oops! Gotta take this call.” She picked up her phone and waved the screen displaying an incoming call from an unknown number to Yunhyeong. 

Yunhyeong dismissed her with a scoff that made her chuckle. It was really fun riling up the guy. Jisoo stood and walk out of the café to take the call. In all honesty, she was really not expecting any calls from her clients and if she was needed by someone in the firm their names should popped-out in the caller ID. Well, she has been handing her business card left and right so this might be a potential client but mostly she was just really using this call to evade Yunhyeong.

“Hi, this is Kim Jisoo. Whom am I speaking too?” Jisoo said as she accepted the call.

There was a short pause on the other line then a voice came in, “Hi, Jisoo-ssi. It’s Kim Hanbin.”

As soon as the name registered to Jisoo, she just knew that something very exciting is about to happen and she was absolutely right. Jisoo’s smile gets wider and wider as she listened to Hanbin. When they ended the call and she walked back inside the café, Yunhyeong instantly looked at her with narrowed eyes.

“Why are you smiling like a crazy person?”

~0~

Yunhyeong burst into his apartment with tingling nerves and blinding smile that his cheeks ache. He couldn’t wait to share the good news that turned his awful day around. With a lightness to his steps, he rushed in to the living room with an excitement he realized he hadn’t felt in a while.

“Bobby-ya!” Yunhyeong exclaimed, almost out of breath in excitement as he soon as he saw Bobby’s figure in the living room. The other guy instantly snapped up in attention that he almost dropped the Nintendo Switch that Chanwoo gave to him. Yunhyeong can’t helped but chuckled on how comical Bobby’s reaction was. “Sorry,” he lightly apologized, “I just got some good news!”

Bobby stood from the couch, looking at him expectantly. “Did you get it?”

“I did!” Yunhyeong beamed. “I got the job! I have a new job now!” When he saw the smile on Bobby’s face slowly light up to full-blown grin, Yunhyeong couldn’t help but jumped to his feet and engulfed the other guy into a bear hug. 

Yunhyeong wasn’t sure what really came into him but he had been containing the happiness he felt since he the interviewer told him that he was hired. He knew that he needed to get it out. He might be overreacting for simply getting the job but somehow it just felt good to have something working out for once. He had no idea for how many minutes he has been latching into Bobby, jumping and spinning around the living room. At length, he just noticed that Bobby’s arms were also around his back, holding him and keeping him steady.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Yunhyeong steadied himself, embarrassedly untangling himself from Bobby. He stepped back, scratching the back of his neck. “I lost myself for a moment there.”

“It’s ok. You can hug me anytime.” Bobby said, patting him at his shoulder.

Yunhyeong felt a small burn on his cheeks. “Ya! I told you, you just can’t say things like that.”

“Why?”

Yunhyeong narrowed his eyes at the innocent look on Bobby’s face. He was starting to wonder if Bobby was just really like this or he has already picked up the cheekiness from spending too much with Chanwoo and Donghyuk and was purposely embarrassing him. “You just can’t, ok?” He groused, avoiding eye contact.

“Hyeong-ie…”

“What?”

“It’s my first time to see you like this.” Bobby stepped closer to Yunhyeong. He looked at him for a moment and fondly smiled. “I’m happy to see you so happy.”

Yunhyeong stared dumbly at Bobby for a few seconds before he blinked out of it, smiling back shyly. “Thank you,” he said softly, thinking how Bobby was right. Yunhyeong couldn’t remember when was the last time he was this excited and happy that he was bouncing off of his feet. 

“Right!” Yunhyeong suddenly exclaimed grabbing Bobby by his shoulders, “We should celebrate! What do you want to eat? I’ll treat you with any food you want,” Yunhyeong paused looking around the room, “—W-wait, where’s Chanwoo?”

“He said he needed to watch a game and you don’t have cable here so, he left.”

“Really? That brat! I told him to keep you company.” Yunhyeong fished out his cellphone ready to call out his youngest friend for being irresponsible. But when he opens his phone, there were already a couple of messages from Chanwoo.

_ Hyung, I’m leaving now. Bobby-hyung said it’s ok and not to worry. So, please don’t be mad. _

_ I think… he’s trying to prove you something. Maybe you should listen and let him, ok? _

_ Anyways, there’s really a game I needed to watch and your tv sucks. Out. _

_ Congrats, hyung! _

The last message meant that Jisoo had already told him. Most likely, the whole gang.

“I told you, I’m getting better now.”

Yunhyeong tore his gaze away from his phone when he heard Bobby’s quiet voice. When he looked up, Bobby was turned sideways from him. He was staring through the window with a strange expression on his face.

“I think… I can handle my own from now on.”

Yunhyeong couldn’t quite figure what was the exact reason but the day after they had gone out for grocery shopping, Bobby has been acting oddly. He began on doing things around the apartment like running the vacuum and washing the dishes. It’s not that there was something wrong with that, in fact, Yunhyeong was quite happy and proud with that progress. What Yunhyeong found really weird was that, Bobby also started telling him that he did not need to call his friends to stay with him when he has to go out. He knew that if he thinks about it, it was a major improvement on Bobby’s part but Yunhyeong was totally caught off-guard with that development. It was so sudden that Yunhyeong was baffled what caused the change. Is it the therapy? Or the incident that day? Or maybe it’s something else entirely?

“Is that it?” Yunheong sighed, shaking his head, feeling silly overthinking things. Maybe he should listen with what Chanwoo texted him and let it be since the sudden shift seemed to be shift to the right direction anyway. “So, you don’t need me anymore then?”

Bobby instantly snapped to his direction with an alarmed look on his face. “No! No! I don’t mean it like that. It’s just that… what I’m saying is just uh—”

“I know what you mean.” Yunhyeong chuckled. “I’m just messing with you.”

“Not funny.”

“What?”

“Don’t joke about it again, please.” Bobby looked at Yunhyeong with a frown. He stared at Yunhyeong with a hard expression on his face. “I will always need you.”

Yunhyeong blanked out for a moment, mouth falling open. He was not sure how long he had been staring at Bobby with a dumb look on his face. He was not sure how long he had thinking how to respond to that but his mind was a like an empty sheet of white paper. All that Yunhyeong knew was that his ears were burning and his heart might have skipped a beat.

And all that Yunhyeong could choke out of his throat was, “Oh… okay.”

Then the serious expression on Bobby’s face vanished like it was never there before. “And I want a cake,” he said.

“Cake?” 

“We’re celebrating, right?” Bobby cocked his head with a childish wonder. He grinned at Yunhyeong. “And I like the way you look at them. I want to see it again.”

They weren’t even talking for long since he got home but for the second time, Yunhyeong found himself with nothing to say but with something to feel.

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> Agonizingly late update. I rushed this chapter since it has been so long.
> 
> Anyway, here it is.


	8. Magnetic Moment

** Entangled VIII – Magnetic Moment **

_ The term magnetic moment normally refers to a system's magnetic dipole moment, the component of the magnetic moment that can be represented by an equivalent magnetic dipole: a magnetic north and south pole separated by a very small distance. The magnetic dipole component is sufficient for small enough magnets or for large enough distances. Higher order terms (such as the magnetic quadrupole moment) may be needed in addition to the dipole moment for extended objects. _

~0~

The sun was barely out but Bobby was already awake. He knew he needed to be up early since it was Yunhyeong’s first day on his new job today. Bobby has been living with the guy for a month now to know that Yunhyeong would already be busy this early making sure that everything was all set and ready not just for himself but also for Bobby.

With a soundless yawn, Bobby slipped off the bed. He rubbed his eyes and stretched for a moment, internally congratulating himself that he did not succumbed on the temptation of playing video games last night because it would be a pain to be awake this early. After making up his bed, he feebly trudged out the room and quietly make his way to kitchen where Bobby was sure to find Yunhyeong. The strong smell of coffee wafting from the kitchen was a dead giveaway.

“Oh, hey,” Yunhyeong briefly glanced at him when he noticed his presence. He then focused back on packing some side dishes into some microwaveable container. “You’re up earlier than usual, huh?” He continued without looking at Bobby. “Breakfast ready. Help yourself with toast. I just need to finish this up.”

Bobby blinked confusedly at Yunhyeong’s back before he went to open up the refrigerator. It was already packed with a lot of food and side dishes. Yunhyeong has been fussing all about food since yesterday so Bobby wondered why the guy was still making more today.

“There’s already a lot of food. Why are you making more?” Bobby mused closing the refrigerator, turning to Yunhyeong.

“Well, it’s never a bad thing to always have extra food ready,” Yunhyeong hummed in response, patting the containers to make sure they were properly sealed off. He rubbed his hands to his apron for a few times before he took it off and finally face Bobby. “And we don’t know when those brats will show up here and raid the fridge.”

Bobby nodded, not having anything to dispute that fact. For the past few weeks, he witnessed how Yunhyeong’s friend come and go into his apartment like it was their own.

“So why are you up this early?” Yunhyeong asked, sliding into his usual seat on the table.

Bobby thought about for a moment as he sat across Yunhyeong. If it was only him, he would straight out say that he just wanted to spend more time with Yunhyeong before he goes to work but the guy has been adamant and relentless on reminding him not to stay those kinds of things. Bobby could not still figure out why though. He really liked saying those kinds of things because it makes Yunhyeong flustered and Bobby was always fond of seeing Yunhyeong flustered. But maybe he needed to let the guy off the hook from time to time.

“It’s your first day,” Bobby simply answered as he picks up himself a toast.

Yunhyeong stared at him as if he was expecting some more from Bobby but let the subject drop after a while. They fell into domestic silence with short burst of random conversation like they have been doing every morning for the past weeks. This time, however, Bobby couldn’t help but noticed Yunhyeong’s sneaking furtive glances on few occasions that he thought that he won’t notice. Bobby knew all too well what’s the meaning behind those looks. It was painfully obvious that Yunhyeong has still reservations about leaving him on his own.

Clearing his throat, Yunhyeong said, “I know we’ve been through this so many times, but will you really be ok?” 

Bobby knew where all this worry coming from and he could not blame him. He was sure the instances at the hospital and recent grocery incident still burning at back of Yunhyeong’s mind. Truthfully, Bobby was not sure neither. He has been attached to Yunhyeong’s hip for the past weeks and he was really uncertain how he would really take now Yunhyeong would be gone for most part of the days. However, Bobby knew that he could not keep holding the guy or his friends back and he never want to anyway.

“Yes. I already told you. I’ll be fine,” Bobby answered evenly with a small smile.

Yunhyeong quietly stared at him with probing eyes for a few seconds before he sighed and nodded almost to himself. Then the silence was diffused as they fell back to a conversation about the video games that Chanwoo lent to Bobby while finishing up their slightly toasted bread as the sunlight gradually ricochet through the kitchen’s small window.

“I’ll do the dishes. You can go ahead,” Bobby prompted as soon as he noticed Yunhyeong glancing at his wrist watch. He smiled upon seeing the mild surprise at guy’s face. “Good luck, Hyeong-ie.”

Yunhyeong returned the smile then turn to his messenger bag and pull out something from one of its pockets. “Here,” Yunhyeong said, handing out a cellphone to Bobby. “I know you said that you’ll be fine and I believe you. But it will really make me feel better if I know you have this with you. You know, in case of emergency,” Yunhyeong shrugged, “But you can call still call me just about anything.”

Bobby stared at the cellphone curiously for a moment before he tentatively taking it from Yunhyeong’s hand. To say Bobby was surprised and touched would be an understatement. He already knew that the guy was so thoughtful but he still finds himself caught off guard from time to time. It was no wonder Yunhyeong’s friends adored him so much. Bobby wanted to say something but before he could utter a word, Yunhyeong was already rushing out of the kitchen while reminding him about the door and the food one last time. With one last glance from across the hallway, Yunhyeong called over a quick ‘see you later’ followed by the closing of the apartment’s door.

Just like that, Bobby has the apartment all to himself. He was surprised that it would be this quiet with no sound but the humming of the refrigerator and the distant traffic from across the block of the apartment building. It maybe because he has been used to have someone always around the room but now, he was all by himself and with no one to expect to come around. 

Suddenly, the thought of being alone became daunting, like it was looming black curtain over his head slowly coming down to him. The kitchen started to grow bigger and the noise became distorted and hollowed. There was an unnerving and disconcerting feeling creeping up on his skin. The air pressure in the room suddenly drop and the oxygen thinned in the surrounding space making it hard to breath. This should not be happening, right? Bobby should be fine alone by now. He knew he should be; he knew he can be. It hasn’t even been ten minutes since Yunhyeong walked out the door. What’s wrong with him? He could do this, right? Yunhyeong will come back later anyway. There’s nothing to be worried about.

But even with all those thoughts, Bobby still found it hard to calm down. It was the same feeling when he briefly lost the sight of Yunhyeong on the crowded street, like there was suddenly a torrent of cold water rushing into the room and filling it up and now it was already neck deep.

Then out of nowhere, a ringing sound broke hollowed silence of the room and Bobby found out that he didn’t move an inch from where he stood since Yunhyeong left him. He looked at the phone on his hand and it displayed the caller ID and a wacky picture of Yunhyeong pouting and holding a peace sign to the camera. 

And just like that, everything was fell back to its place again like it was never disturbed in the first place. He could hear the humming of the refrigerator and distant traffic again. The room was of the same size again. And Bobby could smell the distinct scent of Yunhyeong’s cologne hanging in air.

_ Did he know this will happen? Is that why he is calling already?  _ Bobby wondered as he picked up the call and shakily raise the phone to his ear.

“Bobby?” Yunhyeong’s soft voice came in so clear on Bobby’s ear despite the background noise from his side.

“Yes?”

“I just get on the bus,” Yunhyeong muttered almost shyly. There was short pause and rustling on the other end of the line. “We can talk until I get off the bus, you know.”

_ I know you said that you’ll be fine and I believe you.  _

Yunhyeong didn’t know, Bobby thought. But he still called as if knew. His lips curved into a smile as if there were invisible strings tugging it from its corners as he relished the sound of Yunhyeong’s voice crooning on his ear. Bobby was not sure if would really be fine alone before…

But now, he was.

~0~

“And this will be your space,” the team manager of marketing department, Park Dara, gave Yunhyeong a wide smile as she tapped on the divider of now his officially new cubicle in this new company.

It wasn’t anything grand but it was bigger, cleaner and more ergonomic than his previous one. Yunhyeong bowed and thanked his new and gorgeous manager. Seriously, she can give Jisoo a run for her money and to think that Ms. Dara was a decade older than them.

“So, do you two have any more questions?” Ms. Dara, as she insisted to called asked, looking pointedly from Yunhyeong to Lisa, the new intern, who was also starting today. The fact that he wasn’t the only one who will be considered newbie was a big relief to Yunhyeong. He already has someone in the same spot as him right of the bat and fortunately enough, Lisa also seemed to be friendly and adorable too. It was surefire trait that will help both of them to integrate to the team easily although most of the team members they were already introduced to looked amicable and agreeable that it gave Yunhyeong an impression that it won’t be hard to be get along with them.

Back to the question, Yunhyeong honestly could not think of anything to ask. The basic company rules and protocols had been thoroughly run through on the orientation earlier in the morning. They already been toured for to the essential places within the company building. Everything about his new work was all good so far. In fact, it was too good that Yunhyeong couldn’t help to think that there should be some form of catch on this.

Yunhyeong saw Lisa shook her head from her cube across from him and he was about to do the same when he noticed at big glass door to his right.

“Would that be your office, Ms. Dara?” Yunhyeong asked in curiosity. The room or office was not part of their tour earlier.

The briefly manager glanced at the door Yunhyeong was referring to. “Oh, right,” Ms. Dara gestured to the office, “That’s Director Kim’s office.”

Yunhyeong hated stereotyping but he couldn’t stop himself for instantly thinking about of a balding wrinkly man on his mid-50s watching him like a hawk through the glass walls of his big office. His distress must be very obvious on his face because when he heard his new manager chuckled.

“Don’t worry. Whatever you’re thinking, that’s not how the director is,” Ms. Dara smirked at Yunhyeong like she can read his mind, making Yunhyeong slightly flushed in embarrassment, “He’s even younger than you, Yunhyeong-ssi and you’ll barely see him in there unless you’re working late.”

Yunhyeong furrowed his eyebrows at his manager. He was puzzled how such thing would be possible. A man younger than him was already a director in one of the front-running conglomerates in South Korea but was never in the office during the day.

“He’s not some sort of vampire, isn’t he?” Yunhyeong blurted making the Lisa and Ms. Dara looked at him silly but before any of them could react they were all interrupted by another voice.

“Who’s a vampire?”

The three of them all turned to the source of the question. It was a man wearing loose blue dress shirt and sporting a big round eye glasses perched unbothered on his pristine nose. Yunhyeong stared at the newcomer with a strange vague familiarity at first few seconds until his eyes bulged out of their socket as it registered to his brain who the guy was.

_ Kim Hanbin. _

“You!”

“Me?” Kim Hanbin raised an eyebrow, pointing a finger to himself too innocently.

“Director Kim!” 

Yunhyeong felt his face contort in horror and dismay with his hands falling lifelessly to his side, when he heard Ms. Dara addressed the guy with a bow. _Kim Hanbin is that Director Kim!?_ What are the odds of such inauspicious thing happening? He was a fool to even think that everything would just iron itself out and will go smoothly today. He knew that his new job in this big company was too good to be true without a catch and it just turned out that it had to be what Yunhyeong would never expect in his entire existence. He was seriously thinking that he might cursed or something.

“Hello, Manager Park.” Hanbin greeted Ms. Dara with a polite smile. 

“It’s a nice surprise to see you here in the office this early.”

“Well, I heard that we have some pretty interesting new hires,” Hanbin glanced briefly glanced at Lisa before his gaze settled back at Yunhyeong with his trademark smirk that never failed to make his blood curdle in annoyance, “So, I’m here to personally welcome them to the team.”

Ms. Dara perked up, regaining her professional composure. “Yes. This is our new intern, Lisa and this is Song Yunhyeong, he will take over Mr. Hong’s place,” Ms. Dara gestured to each of them as she said their names. She paused for a moment before curiously glancing between Hanbin and Yunhyeong for a moment with an amused smile, “But I guess you two already knew each other.”

“No! No. I… I think I’m mistaken. I’m sorry.” Yunhyeong curtly denied even though he already knew it was pointless.

“Oh, don’t be like that, _Yunhyeong-hyung_.” Hanbin pouted, stressing and casually calling him in a sickeningly sweet tone.

Yunhyeong choked down the insult he wanted to spit on Kim Hanbin when he saw Lisa and Ms. Dara looking at him expectantly. He disappointingly reminded himself that Kim Hanbin is now technically his boss so he can’t just lash out at him as much as he wanted to. With a heavy sigh, he just lowered his head to hide his flustered face hoping that this torture would end soon.

It didn’t. Because apparently, this was just the start for Kim Hanbin. Yunhyeong desperately wished to all the deity he could name to crack building floor open and just swallow him up that instant when he heard what Hanbin next.

“And I’m not a vampire but if I am, would you let me bite you in the neck?”

~0~

Hanbin idly swayed on his swivel chair with a shit-eating grin on his face while cradling a phone on his ear. He just finished recapping what transpired earlier to Jinhwan. “Oh, you should’ve seen his face, hyung,” Hanbin chuckled, recalling Yunhyeong’s horrified look when he saw him this morning, “He’s so shocked like he finally realized that the Earth was round all along.”

There was nothing but soft static noise on the other line for a few seconds before Jinhwan’s sleep deprived voice came in dull. “I don’t really see why I need to hear this nonsense on a Monday morning?”

“What? Hyung, can’t you see my plan has worked out perfectly well. It’s so good.” Hanbin leaned back contentedly. He could say that going this early to the office this early was worth it.

“The only good thing from that master plan of yours is that, it made you come to work when there’s still light outside like a normal working human being.” 

Hanbin could hear Jinhwan rolling his eyes on the phone. He has a point though. When Hanbin thought about it for a moment, he couldn’t even remember when was the last time he was here during the day. Obviously, the apparent difference is there would a lot of people in the office, he expected that much. For some, he knew that this might be the first time to see him actually in person. There’s nothing really special reason why he doesn’t work during normal working hours, he just preferred to work late in the afternoon and at night. He knew that this might be seen as his privilege being the son of the CEO but all people in the company also knew that he was more than a spoiled son of a wealthy man. The performance of his department could attest to that.

“Way to ruin the fun, hyung. Just because Junhoe-ya can’t pick up your obvious flirting doesn’t mean you get to spoil my fun.” Hanbin scoffed, poking in the cause of Jinhwan’s frustration lately. Honestly, he was amazed that his hyung would be that committed on going back to the gym after their first time just to have his shot to his long-time crush. The only unfortunate thing was that the guy was too either too dense or too oblivious or both to recognize Jinhwan’s blatant attempt on flirting. It was testing Jinwhan’s short fuse and limited patience. Hanbin would not be surprised when his hyung decided to just kiss the guy senseless to get his point across.

“You can say whatever you want but my situation was way much better than yours anyway.”

“That doesn’t sound right.”

“Oh, it does. Me ending up getting Junhoe-ya as my boyfriend is a real statistical possibility which is very much not like yours.” Jinhwan lightly explained with his practiced professional voice.

Hanbin raised an eye brow. “And this is based on what grounds?”

“Ok, let me put it this way.” There was a rustling of papers on the other side then a heavy sigh. “Tell me, does Yunhyeong-ssi even like guys? Does he even swing that way?”

The question caught Hanbin off-guard but again, as much as Hanbin hated to admit it, Jinhwan has a point. 

“You don’t know, do you?” Jinhwan’s voice sounded with smirk from the other end of the line. He knew he got Hanbin.

Hanbin knew. His first meeting with Yunhyeong was all a big coincidence and an alcohol induced naivety and stupidity on Yunhyeong’s part. He was well aware of the reason why the guy was on that kind of place in the first place. Now, it made him wonder why was he so invested in him this much. But still they can never rule out the possibility. Having an ex-girlfriend doesn’t mean he was straight. Because in the end, what are gender norms, right?

“It doesn’t matter.” Hanbin shrugged. Even though Jinhwan hyung was right, Hanbin would deny him the opportunity to admit it. “I’m interested in him, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean I’m interested in him romantically. Maybe I just want to be friends.”

Jinhwan groaned in frustration. “Then don’t pull this crap and be friends with him like a normal person would do.”

“But where’s the fun on that?”

“You’re so childish,” Jinhwan sighed in defeat. “You know what, let’s just hope what you said is true. That it’s friendship that you’re after. Let’s just hope that this won’t bite you in the ass later.”

“Ass biting is a little too vulgar don’t you think? I prefer spanking.” Hanbin grinned, knowing that this will cover the much of allotted tolerance Jinhwan had for Hanbin’s crap for today.

“Ugh! Gross!” That was the last thing he heard form Jinhwan before the line went dead.

Hanbin stared at Yunhyeong’s focused face though the glass wall of his office. He would notice that the guy would drop of his serious face once in a while and glared at his direction even though he knew he couldn’t see him inside. It made him smile. He didn’t really know why but getting on the guy’s nerve really made Hanbin happy. It was weird. He barely knows him but he always has this feeling of wanting to get close to Yunhyeong whenever he sees him.

With a yawn, Hanbin glanced at piles of paper work on his table with disinterested eyes. For a couple of seconds, he debated on going through it but ended up deciding he would just to rile up Yunhyeong instead as he stood and made his way to the door. Jinhwan will have a field day when whatever Hanbin was doing really bite him in the ass later. Although, in the back of Hanbin’s mind, if it ever does happen, he will bite back. He will bite hard and never let go.

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> I’ve been waylaid by other groups and comebacks for the past few weeks. There are so many underrated groups out there that needed the recognition that they deserve!
> 
> Anyways,thanks for those who subscribed and all! More YunBin next! I’m giving YunBin more depth for the next chapters.
> 
> Grammar, you know the drill.


	9. Quantum Superposition

** Entangled IX – Quantum Superposition **

~0~

_ Superposition is the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at the same time until it is measured. _

~0~

“You said he’s barely here during the day, Ms. Dara.” Yunhyeong complained, poking at his half-eaten lunch exhaustedly. It was only halfway through the day but he already felt that he had been ran down by ten-wheeler truck.

“Well, he ‘was’.” Ms. Dara glanced at him with mixture of amusement and sympathy on his eyes.

Yunhyeong dropped his chopstick and covered grabbed the side of his face and groaned making Lisa and their manager chuckle as both of them were enjoying their own food and his misery.

“Why is he here every day?”

It has been two weeks since Yunhyeong started on his job in this new company. It has been two weeks since he met again Kim Hanbin, the only witness of his biggest screw up he wanted to burry on the deep recesses of his mind but who now turned out to be, by some bad stroke of luck, his new boss. And it has been two weeks of pure frustration and plain torture to Yunhyeong because not only that Kim Hanbin is his new boss. Kim Hanbin has made it his personal mission to ruffle Yunhyeong’s feather every iota of opportunity he gets, whether it was with some seemingly harmless statements but with thinly-veiled innuendo or simply just how Hanbin’s eyes glinted at the sight of Yunhyeong. It was really testing his patience and he had no idea how long can he endure before he finally snaps at his new boss. Don’t get him wrong his new job was amazing but it happened to have one fatal flaw – Kim Hanbin.

“Isn’t it just normal for Director Kim to be here every day?” Lisa pointed out with a small smile at his direction.

Yunhyeong rolled his eyes, annoyed by the fact that he can argue with that. Lisa was really a nice and adorable but she was like Donghyuk that also has this cheeky side she was letting out once in a while.

“And why can’t I just handle projects under you, Ms. Dara? You’re my manager.”

“I already told you why last week,” Ms. Dara answered promptly, like she was already expecting that he was going ask that question again. By some cruel twist of fate, the previous employee on Yunhyeong’s current position worked directly under the director so when Yunhyeong took over his position he inherited all of his projects, tasks, everything related to his job which unfortunately includes reporting directly to Kim Hanbin. “And I think you two work well together,” his manager added with a shrug.

Yunhyeong looked at his manager like she had grown two heads. “That’s a joke, right?”

“Not at all,” Ms. Dara shook her head. “The status report you sent last Friday was enough proof and admit it or not, Director Kim is excellent at what he does.”

No matter how much Yunhyeong hated to agree to that statement, it was the truth. Even with all of Kim Hanbin’s childish antics, he could not deny that the guy was really good at his job. Yunhyeong was really skeptical at first on how can someone younger than him be a director of a large conglomerate but in just a short time Hanbin managed to remove all of his doubts on his skills. Apparently, Kim Hanbin is some sort of genius who excels on whatever he does which includes making Yunhyeong want to pull his hair out. 

“He’s still annoying, though,” Yunhyeong grumbled. Kim Hanbin might be some prodigy but it won’t make him any less annoying.

Ms. Dara smiled slyly. “Only to you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Director Kim must really like you, Yunhyeong-sunbae,” Lisa piped in, making Ms. Dara grin widely.

“You mean, he really like to annoy me the hell out of me.” Yunhyeong scoffed.

Lisa and Ms. Dara looked at each other with both confused and amused smile on their lips.

“What?” Yunhyeong furrowed his eyebrows puzzled by their reaction.

Lisa paused, open her mouth the close it again. She looked at Ms. Dara then back to Yunhyeong with an incredulity boldly painted on her face. “You really don’t know, sunbae?”

“A guy who barely comes to office was suddenly here every day when you started. The same guy who likes to annoy you just to get your attention. Does that ring any bell?” Ms. Dara shakes her hands as if she cited the very obvious clues. She had the look that suggested Yunhyeong must be either oblivious or just plain stupid if he did get what they were referring to.

It still took quite a very long silence before Yunhyeong got what they meant and his eyes became saucers as it sinks in. “You guys think that… that…” Yunhyeong couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. He vehemently shook his head and waved his hand. “No. That’s not it. W-wait, does... does everyone think that?”

“Not sure about the other people but it’s pretty obvious to me.” The manager shrugged while Lisa giggled and nodded.

“No! No! It’s not like that. We’re not even friends. That’s not it.”

Ms. Dara studied Yunhyeong for a moment before raising an eye brow, she asked, “Then what is it?”

~0~

Hanbin could not suppress the smile forming on his lips watching Yunhyeong stood at his office door scratching the back of his head in annoyance. It was as clear as day on his face that he didn’t to go in at all but felt he had no choice since Hanbin called him in for work. He was never the one to exploit his position in the company but this time he found it really handy to bend a thing or two to his favor.

“Oh, look who came to see me?” Hanbin cheerfully greeted Yunhyeong as soon as the guy entered his office.

Yunhyeong looked like he was forcing himself not to roll his eyes. “What’s wrong with project budget proposal, Director Kim?” He asked curtly.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Hanbin answered, taking off his round eye glasses and putting it down at his oak wood table.

“Then why did you call me here?”

“I just want to see you now since I couldn’t join you at lunch.”

Hanbin smirked in satisfaction when Yunhyeong close his eyes and took a deep breath and release it enough to blew off his hair on his forehead as he tried to keep his composure. So far, apart from bursting out from their initial meeting two weeks ago, Hanbin was impressed with guy’s patience because he was still holding himself back quite well despite all Hanbin’s obvious jabs. Regardless of that, it was still so entertaining to see all Yunhyeong’s reaction and his attempts to control himself from all Hanbin’s provocation. It all made coming to the office everyday worth it.

“If that’s all, I’m gonna head back out now, Director Kim.” Yunhyeong said in a clipped voice. With brusque bow he turned around, heading towards the door.

“We need adjustments on the budget.” Hanbin called out before the guy could reach the door. Leaning back to his chair, he waited for Yunhyeong to face him again. This time the guy did not even bother hide his annoyance to which Hanbin countered with a smile. “We need to expedite things. I want to pull in the rollout by two weeks.”

“But why? We already agreed with the date. It was already announced.” Yunhyeong furrowed his eyebrows leading back into the office.

Although they only have been working in very short period of time, Hanbin noticed how the guy smoothly fit in to his team and Yunhyeong loves organization when it comes to work. He was definitely someone who was not a fond of last-minute changes. Hanbin find it surprisingly interesting for some unknown reason. 

“I’m thinking a surprise dropped would give as additional boost in the market. We’ll still do the marketing as planned but we will pull in the launch date.” Hanbin explained. When Yunhyeong did not say anything, Hanbin felt obliged to give the topic more context.

Hanbin was sure that changing the plan still didn’t sit well with Yunhyeong because that’s just who he is and it’s also additional work on his part but he could also not deny the idea has a greater success rate than their initial plan.

“Ok. I’ll adjust the timeline and budget proposal.” Yunhyeong agreed almost begrudgingly after the explanation. “I’ll be going then,” he said with a bow before turning around.

“Not so fast. I’m not done yet.” Hanbin called him back again.

“Is there anything else, Director Kim?” Yunhyeong gritted.

Hanbin leaned in to his desk, propping his elbow on the table before resting his head atop his hand, grinning sweetly at Yunhyeong this time. “Actually, I just want to look at you a little longer.”

“Can you stop that?” Yunhyeong groaned, raking his hair in frustration. “Don’t you think it’s a little inappropriate when others hear you say that?”

Hanbin shrugged. “It’s only us here though.”

Yunhyeong closed his eyes and took a big gulp of air before staring at Hanbin in all seriousness that caught him off-guard. “Kim Hanbin-ssi, can you please stop whatever is this your doing? It’s not funny anymore. It’s getting tiresome and childish and other people were already getting the wrong idea about us.”

Hanbin’s eyebrow went up. “Idea about us?” 

“They’re saying that… that,” Yunhyeong interrupted himself like he could not force himself to say it. He shakes his head and said instead, “Can you just please stop it? I know we’ve met in some unconventional way and I’m really grateful of what you did for me that time but can we just end it at that? Why do you still keep on doing this kind of things? What do you want from me?”

It took a while before Hanbin could process everything that Yunhyeong dished out to him but even after he digested every bit of it, Hanbin could only blink in response at the guy. There was something with the questions and how dull and weary Yunhyeong stared at him when he asked those that stunned Hanbin. He had been receiving irritated looks from the guy but this time it was different. Yunhyeong was looking like he was some annoying little kid in the playground he had no time deal with. 

Their tensed stare down was broken up when Yunhyeong’s phone suddenly ring. It gave Hanbin a moment to breathe. He saw Yunhyeong pick his phone out of his pocket, eyes marginally widening when upon seeing the caller ID, as if he wasn’t expecting the call at all... He then glanced at Hanbin with a silent question if he could answer it. The call looked urgent so Hanbin mutely nodded. He listened as Yunhyeong answered promptly in short confirmatory words in low voice as he faced away from Hanbin.

Meanwhile, Hanbin was racking his shocked brain on how he would he handle the situation and answer Yunhyeong but his thought process was interrupted when he heard a name that has always been looming with mystery.

“Bobby?” Yunhyeong whispered lowly.

Hanbin wondered why that name has always been brought up and linked to Yunhyeong all the time but before he could explore that idea more, Yunhyeong was already finished with the call and was now looking expectantly at him again. Hanbin always knew what to say in every situation he was in but right at that moment he was lost for words. He was overwhelmed. His mind, which is his most precious asset could not conjure of anything to say or to answer what the older guy was asking him. Because Hanbin wasn’t really sure what he wanted from Yunhyeong.

“Can I… can I clock out early today?” Yunhyeong asked out of their previous topic. “I have some sort of emergency.”

“Oh… ok. Sure.” Hanbin replied absently. He wanted to ask what kind of emergency it was but his mouth and brain was severely malfunctioning that moment.

“I’ll send you the revised budget proposal later tonight.” Yunhyeong quickly said. 

Hanbin could only watch as Yunhyeong bowed and thanked him hastily before rushing out of the room leaving him behind, speechless and confused.

~0~

They were already out of the police station and now heading to the bus stop couple of blocks away when Yunhyeong noticed Bobby was lagging behind him with a frown on his face.

“Bobby, what’s wrong?” Yunhyeong asked turning to the guy. “You’ve been quiet since from the police station. Is something bothering you?”

“It’s just that… I’m thinking about what they said,” Bobby said after staring at him for a few seconds.

“What about it? Isn’t it good news? I mean, there still so much to figure out but I think the investigation is in the right direction. Sooner or later we’re gonna know who you are.”

When Yunhyeong received a call from the police from Sokcho they were informed to the station where Bobby’s case would be transferred in Seoul and that they have some update about the case, Yunhyeong knew he had to go there immediately with Bobby. At the station, the police told them that they were able to trace the bus that was caught in the only footage that they have of Bobby. They were able to track it back and found out that the bus was from Seoul. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to go on after that, there were only another video of Bobby buying ticket at the station and the record show he paid in cash so there were no card transaction to look into. They had a news regarding Bobby’s registration. The police were leaning to suspect that Bobby might be born or registered from another country. They asked Bobby to he could try to speak or understand English and some other languages. It turned out Bobby could speak English fluently. This now opened up good lead on identifying his identity. The police were currently looking into the airports’ record around the time Bobby was caught on camera from the bus terminal but they were informed that it would take time since they don’t have a name and they don’t know how long Bobby has been in the country prior the incident.

“Why do you look sad about that? Don’t you want to know who you are? Don’t you want to get back to your family? They must be worried sick about you.” Yunhyeong prodded confusedly. They really don’t know if the police investigation was really spot on yet but Yunhyeong felt that they were now onto something.

“Are they?” Bobby asked back with a little bite on his voice. “Are they really worried? Are they really looking for me?”

Yunhyeong paused in mild shock. This was the first time the two of them really talk about this. Most of the time, Yunhyeong felt Bobby was avoiding topics pertaining to his life before or his memories. He just thinks he was uncomfortable opening up things like that so Yunhyeong just let him be. But now Yunhyeong knew it was more than just a mere discomfort.

“Bobby, why are you saying things like that?”

“Because we really don’t know. I really don’t know.” Bobby sighed, looking somber. He was staring at Yunhyeong with shadows and fatigue on his eyes. “Since I can’t remember anything… I’m someone full of possibilities. I really want to know what kind of person am I but I’m so scared as well. What if I’m someone I don’t want? What if I’m someone they don’t want around?”

“You can also be someone everyone wants to be around. You can also be someone who lights up the room simply with your presence. That’s what possibility is.”

“It’s just so hard not to think things like that because of what happened to me. I always feel like it’s not an accident, Hyeong-ie”

Yunhyeong faltered hearing those words. There was huge lump of air suddenly lodged down his throat choking down all the things he wanted to say. Right from the moment that the police officers told him what their investigation on Bobby’s case were leading to, Yunhyeong took it to himself to hold that information to Bobby because seeing the state of guy at beginning, he knew that it would do more harm when he learned there was a high chance that his case was no accident at all. It was not like he will keep it to himself forever. He still planned to tell him eventually when he was sure that Bobby was strong enough to take it, when he was sure it would never cross Bobby’s mind to do it again, when Yunhyeong had made Bobby feel like that his life will always be worth living for. But despite all his efforts, he still failed to notice that Bobby still felt that way all this time.

Yunhyeong stood there frozen looking at Bobby fumbling on what to say to make the situation better, to make Bobby feel better. He always thought that saving the guy, taking him in and taking care of him made Yunhyeong special, that he was some sort of a hero and that everything would go as he thought it would be but he should have known by now that it doesn’t work that way. So, Yunhyeong just stood there with nothing to say staring at Bobby with storm on his eyes anxiously fiddling with his hands with a wry smile on his lips.

Then it rained.

The sudden torrent of rain drops coming down upon them snapped Yunhyeong out of his stupor. He instinctively grabbed Bobby by the hand as his head whipped back and forth to find the nearest place, they can take shelter. They were both mildly soaked when they took refuge to a convenience store. Inside, there were already customers lining up with umbrella in hand. Yunhyeong was lucky enough that there was still one umbrella left for him to buy.

It was raining hard outside. It was not too unusual at this time of the year to have a drizzle or two but this one was a full blown rain so even with umbrella that was enough to fit the two of them, they still opt to just stand outside the convenience store and wait for the rain to subside enough for them to go to the bus stop. They stood there in silence, watching the rain drops sliced through the air in white and gray. Yunhyeong could still feel the tension of their interrupted conversation clinging to them like their soaked clothes.

“I’m sorry.”

Yunhyeong heard Bobby said quietly on his side, making him glance at him. But he was not looking at Yunhyeong. He was staring off at distance to something Yunhyeong could not tell.

“I’m sorry for feeling like that,” Bobby continued, head lowering to ground. “I feel so bad saying those things. I know you’re doing your best to help me even though you don’t have to and I’m ruining it with all those thoughts.”

“You have all the reason to feel that way, Bobby-ya. You don’t need to apologize for that.” Yunhyeong hesitantly reached out and pat Bobby’s shoulder lightly, finally finding his voice again. “I wish I know the right words and I wish I can give you all the answers to make you feel better but I’m nothing special.”

When Yunhyeong felt Bobby glanced at him, he looked back right at him. As the volleys of raindrops rage down upon them muffling every sound with the beats of splattering water on the pavement and rooftops, Yunhyeong smiled through the misty air, hoping that the rain would also wash everything away with it, the guilt, the fear and the sadness. With a light squeezed on Bobby’s shoulder, Yunhyeong continued, “Still… I’ll be with you through all of this.”

Bobby did not say anything. He only stared at Yunhyeong with wavering light on his eyes that Yunhyeong could not read making his smile drop a little. Bobby then sighed and averted his gaze again at a distance.

“But what about after all of this?” Bobby asked, voice subdued. “Will you still be there… with me?

Yunhyeong paused, eyes widening a fraction. Ironically, with all the thinking ahead he prided himself to, he hadn’t thought about it that far. He just thought by the end of all this it will just worked out the way it should be. But now he was not sure what will be of them if it worked out the way it should be. Will they still be able to be a part of each other’s lives or will they go their separate ways and live their own lives?

Then Yunhyeong remembered something he said not too long ago and he berated himself why he had to second guess in the first place. No matter how things turn out, they’re already a part of each other’s lives. Nothing could change that now.

_ Don’t worry, ok? I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. _

“I will be. I already told you before, Bobby-ya,” Yunhyeong said with soft chiding tone, “that I’m not going anywhere.”

“Even if I turned out to be a bad person? Even if I’m someone you can’t stand to be with?”

Yunhyeong chuckled. “I really doubt that’d be the case. But…” 

The rain was slowly starting to calm down now. Yunhyeong lifted up his hand holding the umbrella and slide it open. He turned to Bobby and lightly ruffled his moist hair. He then stood close to him and put his arms around his shoulder so the two of them fit in the umbrella.

“But even if it was, it doesn’t matter,” Yunhyeong said as they charged to the side walk, to rain. “No matter who you really are before, you’re always gonna be Bobby to me.”

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> Sorry for the late updates for the past months. I’ve been procrastinating. Maybe because I feel like this story is much lighter to write. That’s why I’m putting angsty little things in the story so I was forced to sit down and write it out. I love angst. LOL.
> 
> There’s going to be a major improvement on YunBin front next chapter so stay tuned.
> 
> That’s all. Let me know what you think of this chapter. Thanks!


	10. Singuarity

** Entangled X – Singularity **

~0~

_ In scientific terms, a gravitational singularity (or space-time singularity) is a location where the quantities that are used to measure the gravitational field become infinite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. In other words, it is a point in which all physical laws are indistinguishable from one another, where space and time are no longer interrelated realities, but merge indistinguishably and cease to have any independent meaning. _

~0~

Yunhyeong stared wearily at the stacks of documents on his desk. He let out a frustrated sigh and glare at the direction of director’s office. The amount of work that he needed to do was starting to pile up and so was Yunhyeong’s stress. All because of Kim Hanbin. His annoying director has been MIA for two days leaving Yunhyeong with heaps of paperwork that urgently requires his approval. Yunhyeong could not believe why the hell he even proposed changing the original plan if he would just suddenly disappear without any trace of his whereabouts. Don’t get him wrong, Yunhyeong had no issue about the lack of Kim Hanbin’s presence at the office. The last two days could have been his most peaceful days in the office if only Kim Hanbin had signed the revised proposal before going at out of the radar. But he didn’t. Now, everything was gradually spiraling out Yunhyeong’s control.

Running his hand through his hair, Yunhyeong abandoned his cubicle and paddled his way to his manager’s office with burdened steps. As soon as he entered the room two pair of eyes instantly snapped to his direction. Yunhyeong’s gaze lingered at Lisa for a moment, feeling a twinge of envy that the intern was having a normal office experience working under Ms. Dara while he was stuck with someone whose sole purpose was to make Yunhyeong’s life harder than it should be.

“Still no signs of Director Kim?”

Yunhyeong’s gaze flickered to his manager who was looking at him with sympathetic eyes. He shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know what to do now, Ms. Dara.”

Ms. Dara studied him for a moment before she put down her reading glasses. “It’s strange though,” she mused, “His absences were not something new but he never missed anything when it comes to work more so his own project.”

“There’s always a first for everything.”

“Still, we should have heard anything from him by now.” Ms. Dara said.

“Do you think something bad happened to him Ms. D?” Lisa gasped.

The manager shook her head. “The higher ups should be already in distress if that’s the case.” She hummed in thought and glanced back at Yunhyeong. “Did something happen the last time he was here?”

Something hitched at the back of Yunhyeong’s thought when two pair of eyes stared at him expectantly. It was an innocent question with no ounce of accusation but the feeling that he got felt like he was under interrogation. It did not help that the last interaction he had with the young director was not a pleasant one. Yunhyeong almost winced when he remembered how he lashed out back then.

“N-Not that I know of,” Yunhyeong hated himself for sounding so nervous.

“Huh,” Ms. Dara raised an eye brow, “I really can’t shake the feeling that we’re missing something important here.”

Yunhyeong gulped, not sure why does it felt like they were trying to smoke him out and why does he feel like he was somewhat the reason that the director had gone missing. He wasn’t even that harsh to him back then. Maybe a little? But in Yunhyeong’s defense Kim Hanbin was the one who started it in the first place and he was not some saint with endless patience to put up his antics. Also, it was not enough reason for someone disappear and left the whole project on a deadlock. With all the interaction he has with guy, he would have never thought that Kim Hanbin was someone with thin skin and would let what Yunhyeong’s brief episode get to him. It’s not Yunhyeong was something to him anyway. Right?

“Maybe we should check up on him, then?” Lisa piped in.

Have you experience a sudden feeling of dread that things were about to go down? Yunhyeong felt that when Ms. Dara perked up like an instantly like an overeager puppy with the suggestion. 

“That’s a great idea!” The manager turned to Yunhyeong with a big playful grin on her face. “Go check on him Yunhyeong.”

“What!? No!” Yunhyeong looked at them disbelief. “Why me?”

Ms. Dara shrugged. “Well, you’re the one who needed him the most. It’s the solution to all of your problem.”

“I don’t even know where he lives.” Yunhyeong pointed out. No matter how good the idea looks on paper or as tempting as it sounds, it was still a ridiculous idea. Why? Because it’s Kim Hanbin. Going to his house would be like going inside the lion’s den.

“I can help you with that.”

“Isn’t rude to just go there unannounced?” Yunhyeong instilled. There was no way he would go there. Right? There was no way he would go with this absurd idea. But why did he feel like he was fighting a losing battle?

“I’m sure Director Kim wouldn’t mind especially if it’s you,” Ms. Dara winked at him.

Yunhyeong paused for a moment, eyes shifting between the two girls in front of him, fumbling for an excuse that will save himself from this situation he got himself into. “We don’t even know if he was home anyway,” he said, almost pleading.

But when Lisa smirked at him instead, Yunhyeong knew that he lost the fight. Despite her adorable little girl appearance, she was the perfect amalgamation of Chanwoo’s cheekiness and Jisoo’s wit.

“It’s your best chance, sunbae, wouldn’t you want to risk it?”

“Why do you guys hate me so much?” Yunhyeong groaned turning around and leaving the two girls with big smile on their faces.

~0~

Hanbin squinted at the digital thermometer reading until the numbers finally settled to 37.7. He sighed in relief, setting the thermometer aside to the coffee table. It was a good thing that his fever has started to subside. Hanbin doesn’t want to call his mother just for this self-inflicted flu that he never expected to catch when he decided that it was a cool idea to get himself rained on two days ago. He knew that if his mother caught a whiff of his situation, she would fuss over him and he would had been in the hospital before he can take a word in and Hanbin didn’t want that. He didn’t to worry his mother because of this simple fever. Besides, Jinhwan had already checked on him yesterday and left him some cold medicine before he go to out of town for a seminar and Jenny was supposed to drop by later today too.

Shifting from his side, Hanbin stared at the nondescript ceiling of his living room as he burrowed himself to comfortable position on the couch. He was waiting for the medicine-induced drowsiness of the cold tablet he just took to cloud his eyes and put him to slumber. He figured out that he would likely be back to normal once he woke up later. The sooner this fever goes away the better. It took a few minutes before Hanbin felt his eyes getting heavy but just about his eyes were fluttering close, the doorbell rang.

Groaning, Hanbin turned to his side and willed that whoever ringing the damned doorbell to scurry off. It was probably just some delivery guy or something since his family and his friends knew his house code and would just walk in straight inside. But the buzzing sound went on for a minute or so until he could not take the ringing anymore. Fueled by his annoyance, Hanbin managed to pull his still fatigued body from the couch and trudged towards the door ready to snap to the person outside. When he reached the door, he opened up the doorbell camera and was dumbfounded when he realized who the person was. Hanbin blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes just to make sure that it was not a fever-induced hallucination. As a good measure, he also lightly pinched himself make sure that he was neither dreaming. The next chiming of the doorbell that snapped Hanbin from his stupor and made him accept the fact that it was really Song Yunhyeong standing by his gate. Without much of a thought, he pressed he unlocked button to let the Yunhyeong inside.

It was when Hanbin slide his front door open that he was splashed by a bucket of ice-cold realization of what he just did. He watched as the anxious anticipation on Yunhyeong’s face quickly morphed into surprise and confusion as he gaped when his gaze fell on him. Who wouldn’t? Hanbin looked like he was hit by a tornado with his baggy grey sweat pants and crumpled white shirt. Don’t get him started with his bird nest hair and cracked lips on his shrunken face. Embarrassment crept on Hanbin like second skin and if it wasn’t for his tired legs, he would have run inside the house and wrapped himself in a sleeping bag to hide his hideous state.

“Oh, hello there.” Hanbin croaked out, trying to be as casual as he could even though he knew he was far from feeling and looking casual at that moment.

Yunhyeong blinked at him as him snapping out of his initial shock. “You look…” 

Hanbin waited in apprehension, remembering the last conversation the two of them shared and the disdainful look Yunhyeong was giving him that day.

“…You’re sick.” Yunhyeong said more of a statement than a question.

“A little, maybe?” Hanbin rubbed the back of his head, feeling a little self-conscious. Normally, it would never bother him but it might be because of the medicine or his fever or Yunhyeong that he felt slightly embarrassed being exposed as the complete anti-thesis of his normal self.

Yunhyeong was silent for a moment, eyes flickering on the folder he was holding then back to Hanbin. It seemed like he was internally debating on what to do next.

“This… this could wait.” Yunhyeong shook his head. “I’m sorry to bother you, Director Kim. Please… rest well,” he said with a hasty bow and turn around.

“Hold on.” Hanbin was not sure why he suddenly panics and grabbed the guy by his sleeves making Yunhyeong wheeled back. They stared at each other eyes before they both flinched back. Hanbin retracted his hand and cleared his already dry throat.

“I mean, you came all the way here for my approval on that documents, right?”

“But you’re sick and you should be—”

Hanbin waved his hand dismissively. “C’mon now, I can sign it. I just really need to sit because I’m starting not to feel my legs.”

It was supposed to make the situation a little lighter but Yunhyeong looked more concerned than relieved so Hanbin just gestured the guy to follow him inside as he turns around because he really felt his legs would give up before he could convince Yunhyeong that it was really fine. He could not afford more embarrassment in front of the guy.

Hanbin let out a big sigh as soon as his body sink back down on the couch. Yunhyeong followed shortly after, settling on of the sofa chair. Hanbin felt a little bare as he watched Yunhyeong’s curious eyes roam around the living the room. Luckily for him though, the room was still in pristine shape. 

For a long moment neither of them said anything and the silence was really starting to be suffocating. Hanbin was fumbling over his fuzzy brain to think of anything to say when Yunhyeong focused his attention back to him and looked at him with guilt and a hint of concern.

“Why are you looking me like that?” Hanbin asked with a weak smirk. “You feel bad coming here, do you?”

“You’re not feeling well and I just came here unannounced.” Yunhyeong avoided his gaze.

“And I’m the one who called the change of plan and you’re just doing your job by coming here.” Hanbin gestured to Yunhyeong to give him the folder which he did after a moment of hesitation. “I bet you got so frustrated when I bailed out for two days.”

“Well, I can’t reach you and I didn’t know you’re sick. You should at least let us know… next time.” 

Hanbin raised a brow at Yunhyeong but the guy just avoided his gaze again. It might be just his imagination but it almost sounded like Yunhyeong was really concerned about his well-being. He studied the guy for a second, somewhat moved even though it might just be his delusion given that he did nothing but to annoy the guy. Picking up the pen, he shook his head and smiled to himself as he flipped over the papers and signed the documents without any much further ado.

“There, done.” Hanbin setting back down the folder on the table.

Yunhyeong looked at him, aghast. “But you didn’t even review it.”

Hanbin waved him off with a smile. “I already reviewed the original plan and it was great. I doubt this one’s any different.”

“Oh,” Yunhyeong seemed to be lost for words for a moment, not expecting the sudden trust and sincere compliment from him out of all people. It was true though. “T-Thank you, Director Kim and I’m really sorry for bothering you while you’re sick.”

“It’s just a signature. No harm done.” Hanbin sighed, leaning back to the couch. His eyelids were starting to really get heavy.

“Are you really ok? Don’t you need to go to the hospital.”

“I’m fine. I’m actually much better now. I’m just sleepy because of the medicine I took.” Hanbin felt better even more hearing the worry on Yunhyeong’s voice. He can’t believe that he was starting to think that catching a flu would be a blessing in disguise given that this was also his first time having normal conversation with Yunhyeong.

“I should let you rest then,” Yunhyeong said, getting up from the chair. “I’m heading out now Director Kim.”

“Hanbin.”

Yunhyeong glanced at him in confusion. “Huh?”

“Just please call me Hanbin.”

Yunhyeong stared at him in thought for a moment but remained silent.

Hanbin sighed shifting slightly to his side. His heavy eyes squinting sleepily at Yunhyeong. “I know I’ve been annoying jerk to you since the beginning. To that, I’m sorry.”

“It’s… it’s ok. Don’t worry about it.”

Hanbin knows that it could be nothing but a small ounce of pity for his current condition but he still felt relieved hearing that the guy was, in some way, accepting his apology.

“You’re really nice you know that? Maybe that’s why I always wanted your attention.” He said, chuckling hoarsely.

“What?”

“I feel drunk and saying things I shouldn’t have. Damn this cold medicine.” Hanbin groaned softly, eyes fluttering close. “But Yunhyeong-ssi… you asked me what I want from you, right?”

There was no response. Hanbin was not sure if had fallen asleep or if Yunhyeong was already gone but whatever the case he needed to say it now even though he will surely die in embarrassment once he remembers these shenanigans once he woke up.

“A start. I want us to start again. Can we do that?” Hanbin whispered as the light on his vision became murky, fading into a single point until everything turned into black as his brain shuts off.

It was twilight when Hanbin woke up with his headache gone and body lighter than before. He wasn’t sure how he ended up lying on the couch tucked in one of his blankets but he vaguely remembered sitting on the couch while talking to Yunhyeong and… Hanbin instantly shoots out to a sitting position looking around the room. No one was there but him and it almost seemed like no one had been there with him at all. Hanbin sighed in disappointment as he stood up suddenly realizing how thirsty he was. Did he just dream all of that? At least it was a good dream, Hanbin consoled himself as he made his way to the kitchen.

Hanbin was halfway on his second glass when he his stomach grumbled. He expected as much since he hasn’t eaten any proper meal today. He was internally debating on ordering pizza or chicken or both when he noticed something on the kitchen table. Hanbin put down the glass went to check what it was. 

On a yellow post-it-note, scribbled a sentence in a messy handwriting that put the biggest smile on Hanbin’s face and made his chest so warm that he thinks he might be having a heart burn.

_ The porridge might have gone cold now so be sure to heat it up before you eat it and also… consider this our start, Kim Hanbin. _

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: 
> 
> That’s YunBin yeorubun! Finally, right? Things will be much interesting and spicy on the succeeding chapters. It’s time for lots of confusion, jealousy, denial and of course fluff!
> 
> Also, apologies for the lack of Bobby here. I cut of his part because it felt out of place for this chapter.
> 
> Anyways, what do you think of this chapter?
> 
> ~Milkfish


	11. The Banana Doughnut Theory

** Entangled XI – The Banana Doughnut Theory **

  


~0~

_ The Banana Doughnut theory also sometimes known as Born-Fréchet kernel theory, or Finite-frequency theory is a model in seismic tomography that describes the shape of the Fresnel zone along the entire ray path of a body wave. This theory suggests that the area that influences the ray velocity is the surrounding material and not the infinitesimally small ray path. This surrounding material forms a tube enclosing the ray, but does not incorporate the ray path itself. _

~0~

Jisoo sipped her almost empty glass of strawberry milkshake, glancing at her wrist watch in annoyance. The guys were running late far more that her patience could ever handle which was virtually nonexistent even on her best days. She was itching to get out of this irritatingly wholesome café for 30 minutes already and burn her throat with some spiked-up drink and soju even though it was only Thursday. She just wanted to ease up a little since her week has been so bland and filled with frustrating old-age process of bureaucracy. Don’t get her wrong, Jisoo really like her job but her firm has been sidelining her with trivial cases for so long already. Not because of her lack of competence (Jisoo was sure that everyone in the law firm knew what she was capable of) but because she was a woman. Cursing under her breath, Jisoo shook those depressing thoughts of misogyny in the modern society out of her head. For now, she will have to suck it up and bide her time until she can overthrow that stupid sexist system. For now, Jisoo just really needed some alcohol in her veins. If only the guys would show up already.

As if on cue, Jisoo finally noticed familiar head of Chanwoo and Donghyuk heading to her table.

“What took you guys so long? I’m about to menopause waiting here.” Jisoo glared at her dongsaengs as they sat on the available seats on the table.

“Sorry, noona. We needed to dropped off Junhoe-ya somewhere.” Donghyuk answered with apologetic smile.

Jisoo’s eyebrows shot up. It was weird that Junhoe will not be with them today since he was never the one to miss a chance to drink. “Ooh, what’s going on?”

“I think he has a date.”

Chanwoo glanced at Donghyuk with a ‘are-you-joking’ expression on his face before looking at Jisoo with bored certainty. “He has a date.”

“Really?” Jisoo chuckled in disbelief, already pitying the poor soul of Junhoe’s supposedly date. The boy was all flirty but dumb and oblivious as a rock when it was the other way around. “Does Junhoe know he’s on a date though?”

“Beats me.” Donghyuk shrugged.

“Do you know who it is?” Jisoo asked in excitement. The mantra of her rebellion against the male chauvinism fading in the deep recesses of her mind. “Is it a girl? A guy?” She eyed the two guys with anticipation but the Donghyuk and Chanwoo just glanced at each other and stared at her blankly in return turning her anticipation into frustration. “A fruit? A tree? C’mon give me something to bite here.” 

“Ten bucks on fruit.” Chanwoo snorted.

“Ugh, you guys are hopeless.” Jisoo rolled her eyes but chuckled nonetheless.

“Just ask him when you see him, noona.” Donghyuk suggested.

“You bet I will.” Jisoo will be sure to sniff out Junhoe every bit of information about his potential love life. She will find cracks and niches where she could stir something and make it interesting while she was in front row with a box of popcorn. She loves messing up with her friends’ romantic interest so much since theirs were much more exciting than her own. The thought of Junhoe’s budding romance suddenly triggered something on Jisoo’s mind that made her forgo her thirst for alcohol tonight for something much better. Smirking to herself, she looked around the table, “Speaking of bet, we still have the one about Yunhyeong-ie.” 

Chanwoo glanced at her in mild surprise. “The one with Bobby-hyung? That’s not a joke?” 

“Of course not.”

“Is it the purpose of this meeting?” 

“And they said, Donghyuk’s the smart one.” Jisoo winked easily at the youngest as if it was really her intention from the beginning.

“But noona, isn’t that bet a little far-fetched? Yunhyeong-hyung’s not gay or anything. He’s been with girls for all his life.” Donghyuk pointed out with apprehension on his voice.

“And has it been successful?” 

“No, but that’s doesn’t mean he’s gonna be into guys.” Donghyuk argued. He glanced at Chanwoo as if asking him to take his side but the guy only blinked in response and remained silent.

“Oh, you underestimate me Kim Donghyuk.” Jisoo crossed her arms taking it as a challenge. She loves challenges, bets and proving that she’s right. It’s what people love to hate about her. “Let’s go.”

“Huh? Where?”

“To Yunhyeong’s.” Jisoo said as she stood up.

“Why? Yunhyeong-hyung is not there yet.” Chanwoo looked at her, puzzled.

“Really? How do you know?”

“Bobby-hyung told me when we were playing online games. Actually, Yunhyeong hyung has been coming home late these past few days.”

“Then that’s much better.” Jisoo smiled wickedly as the plan on her head became crystal clear. All she needed now was to execute it perfectly. Jisoo really love how her brain works. Smiling off the dubious expression of her dongsaengs, she said, “We might need to swing by a grocery store first though.”

“What for?”

“Nothing much. Just need to buy some fruits for Bobby”

If only it was just the three of them there, Jisoo would have let out a laugh that will put all Disney villains to shame as she sashayed out of the café like she was in New York’s fashion week runway but with two confused and worried guys on her tow.

~0~

Her prediction was spot on. Jisoo could not suppress the smirk forming on her lips as the three of them piled on the living room of Yunhyeong’s apartment. Bobby went from being an excited puppy wagging its tail to disappointed one with ears and eyes hanging down when he realized that it was not his owner who came in. Glancing at Donghyuk and Chanwoo behind her, she signaled them to put down the basket of fruits they fetched from the grocery on the coffee table, settling themselves with on the two small sofa chairs as they did so.

“You thought it’s Yunhyeong, do you?” Jisoo eyed Bobby knowingly. The guy just shuffled to his fit and avoided her gaze, mumbling a soft greeting for them. “Don’t worry. I’m gonna give him an earful for working late and leaving you here waiting by yourself.”

“You don’t have to do that!” Bobby perked up, shaking his head in alarm. “He’s just late because of work.”

“Aww, look at you defending Yunhyeong-ie. You really like him, don’t you?”

“Noona.” Donghyuk warned, eyeing Jisoo warily.

“What? I’m just asking Bobby? Jisoo rolled her eyes as she approached the big sofa where she carelessly deposited herself. Donghyuk has been really in opposition with the plan that she was concocting saying that it was crossing some line that should not be cross. Jisoo was fully aware where the guy’s apprehension was coming from but she knew she was not delusional for pushing this bet forward. Her gut was telling her that there was something in here and she will show it to them before this night end. 

Jisoo watched Bobby stood awkwardly for a moment before lowering himself at the opposite end of the sofa where she sat. He was quiet for a moment before speaking up in small voice “I… I really like him. He saved me...”

“See... Bobby hyung is just grateful on what Yunhyeong hyung has done for him.” Donghyuk said stressing some part of the sentence while giving Jisoo a look as if telling her to stop with whatever she was plotting on her head. But Jisoo was not someone to be easily derailed by some minor setback especially when she had silver bullets in her ammunition that Donghyuk was not aware of.

“Sure. Ok.” Jisoo conceded, waving her dainty hand in dismissal. She then slides near Bobby’s end of the couch. Leaning provocatively, she asked, “But tell me Bobby, do you want to hold Yunhyeong’s hand? Do you want to hug him?” She paused, studying Bobby’s reaction. When their eyes met Jisoo smirked at him as the vague memory flashed back in her eyes when she drunkenly crashed in Yunhyeong’s apartment one night and saw Bobby’s silhouette looking over Jisoo and Yunhyeong. “Do you want to sleep next to him and hold him? Or do you want to kiss him?”

Jisoo knew she just hit a nerve when Bobby’s eyes widen and turned away with a blush creeping down his neck and cheeks. _‘Yes, that’s right. I saw you that night,’_ Jisoo thought with an odd sense of satisfaction.

“Really, noona? Leading questions? This is not a cross examination.” Donghyuk shot Jisoo a look of disapproval before turning Bobby. “You don’t have to answer that hyung.”

“You used to be the fun one Donghyuk-ie.” Jisoo sighed, sounding a little disappointed. “Fine. You don’t have to answer that but just answer this instead, what’s your favorite fruit?”

Jisoo didn’t missed Donghyuk furrowing his eye brows in confusion. She knew that the guy was already analyzing the implication of her odd attempt of swerving the direction of the conversation. On the other hand, Chanwoo was just looking all amused on the spectacle unfolding in front of him with no sign of his stance on the issue at hand.

“I like peaches.” Bobby replied, drawing all of their attention back to him.

“Perfect! We bought peaches.” Jisoo clapped her hands, delighted that they really have peaches. She inched a little closer to Bobby and asked, “But what about bananas? Do you like bananas?”

Bobby thought about it for a moment. “They’re ok.”

“Here. Try this then.” Jisoo quickly snatched a big yellow banana from the basket and offer it to Bobby. When Bobby took the banana, Jisoo leaned in with a wicked smile on her lips. “But you must remember this one rule when eating a banana, you should always put the banana on your mouth and not your mouth on the banana.”

“Why?”

“Because putting your mouth on the banana is strictly reserve for when you’re giving a blo—”

“Noona!” Donghyuk cut her off, scandalized with where the conversation was heading. 

“What? I’m just giving Bobby an advice.”

“A sex advice!?”

“Why not?” Jisoo shrugged. “Minus the amnesia, he’s a healthy young man. And don’t you guys act like some giggly virgin when we all know that’s not true.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m the maknae here.” Chanwoo smirked at Donghyuk.

“Don’t pull that card on me when we’re barely a year apart.” Donghyuk scoffed.

Jisoo chuckled. “You kids don’t need throw each other under the bus. It’s just me and you guys are in the right age to do things like that. I even caught Chanwoo—”

Chanwoo snapped at her direction in split second that Jisoo almost thought that the youngest twisted his neck, looking all horrified and agitated. “Noona! You promised!”

“Oops!” Jisoo made a zip locking motion on her lips then raised both of her hands in mock surrender. As Chanwoo sighed, she glanced at Donghyuk who looked very intrigued with what dirt she has on the youngest. “Sorry, Donghyuk-ie. Chanwoo-ya bought my silence for the matter with a very reasonable price.”

“What’s going on?”

All of their heads automatically turned towards the direction of the voice only to see slightly disheveled Yunhyeong standing with loose necktie and crumpled blue dress shirt at the threshold of the living room. His confused gaze flickered across them until it settled to Jisoo.

“Oh, nothing.” Jisoo eased up on the initial shock easily. Yunhyeong’s timing was just impeccable. It’s time for the phase 2 of her plan. She eyed Bobby from the corner of her eyes, still with the banana in hand, his eager eyes almost reaching out to Yunhyeong with the same ‘Pet me! Pet me!’ energy of a golden retriever. “I’m just imparting my wisdom to these gentlemen about bananas and dieting.”

Yunhyeong raised a doubtful eye brow at her. “Why are you guys here anyway?”

“Well… I heard from the grapevine that you’ve been working late leaving poor little Bobby on his own. So, we’re here to turn his frown upside down.” 

Yunhyeong shrank back a little, scratching the back of his neck. Jisoo mentally pat herself when she got the reaction she needed. Every part of her plan was playing out perfectly.

“Sorry about that Bobby-ya.”

“No, no. It’s ok. I don’t mind it at all.” Bobby shook his head, edging up on his seat a little. “I know it’s for your wok.”

As a lawyer, Jisoo has developed the skill of picking up cues and ticks when someone was withholding some information or the truth. Not to mention that by default, she has already keen sense of smell for sniffing out things coupled with her sensitive gut instinct, she can detect bullshit miles away and yet she didn’t even need to have those characteristics to see through Bobby’s thinly veiled excuse. The guy couldn’t lie for shit. But thanks to that, she could play her cards right. So, in return, she will throw the guy some bone.

“You should make it up to Bobby,” Jisoo chided. 

“You don’t have to—”

“Yeah, sure!” Yunhyeong brightened up on the suggestion. “Let’s go somewhere on Saturday, Bobby-ya. What do you think?”

Bobby stared at Yunhyeong in awe but remained silent. Jisoo suspected that the guy was a little shy with her and the other guys being there. So, she nudged Bobby to snapped him out of his internal struggle. He glanced at her to which she responded with a wink.

“Uh, ok.” Bobby nodded, ears reddening.

From across the couch Jisoo smirked a Donghyuk with a clear subtext of ‘see what I can do?’.

Donghyuk gave her a hopeless look before turning to Yunhyeong. “Why do you like a mess, hyung?”

Yunhyeong groaned tiredly, proceeding to wring his shoulder. “I’ve been running around all day in the office and also had to drop by our director’s house.”

“You went to Kim Hanbin’s house!?” Jisoo almost shot up from couch. She couldn’t believe the information went past her brilliant mind. She was the one to set it up in the first place. As it turned out, things were progressing at that end too.

“Kim Hanbin?” Chanwoo glanced at Donghyuk then to her, face scrunched in confusion. So, Jisoo locked gaze with the youngest with a knowing look. “Oh… that Kim Hanbin.”

“Kim Hanbin is your new boss, hyung?” Donghyuk asked. 

“Plot twist huh?” Jisoo piped in, causing Donghyuk to turn to her. She smiled smugly at the look of disbelief on his face. “Interesting. Very interesting...” She purred, crossing her legs narrowing her eyes at Yunhyeong. “Why did you go there? Is it a booty call?”

“No! Get your mind out of the gutter, will you?” Yunhyeong exploded in incredulity. “I just really need his approval for our project but he’s been MIA for days. It turned out he’s sick.”

“Oooh. Did you help him? You know, help him lower his temperature with some steamy shower action?”

“What? No!” Yunhyeong stared at her like she was some deranged old lady that snuck out of mental asylum. “I… I just… It was just a short meeting. I left right after I got his signature.”

“Sure… but what’s with the hesitation?”

Jisoo smiled evilly when Yunhyeong stuttered some incomprehensible words under his breath. Yunhyeong was deflecting. It would seem that there was something that happened during his visit he wanted to keep his mouth shut off. But before Jisoo could squeeze out details from the guy, Bobby speak up with an odd uncharacteristically serious tone from his voice.

“Who’s Kim Hanbin?”

All of them turned to Bobby. He was frowning so hard and with a cold stony eye at Yunhyeong. Jisoo surreptitiously eyed Chanwoo and Donghyuk. The two other guys also seemed to pick up on the shift on Bobby’s mood and the tensed undercurrent of the question. They hold each other’s gaze for a moment until they reached some form of silent agreement before they all turned their attention back to Yunhyeong.

“He’s your competition, Bobby,” Jisoo supplied when the tensed silence stretched out that it was almost suffocating.

“What are you talking about? Don’t listen to her, Bobby-ya. She’s nuts.” Yunhyeong glared at her before glancing at Bobby. “He’s… he’s just,” a pause as if he was debating how to describe his connection to Kim Hanbin, “my boss.”

“Your hot boss. Which also happened to sle—”

“Ta! Ta! Ta!” Yunhyeong cut her off, eyes wide and jaw clenched. “Jisoo! Let’s not bring that up again please.”

“What a buzzkill,” Jisoo rolled her eyes and averted her gaze to Bobby. The guy didn’t seem to be happy with the interaction. He was scowling at the banana he was holding that Jisoo thought he was going to crush the fruit. It would be a shame though if that would be the case. It was a fine-looking banana.

“Then… I’m gonna go wash up quick.” Yunhyeong excused himself with an awkward smile, loosening the tie on his neck before scampering off the living room. “Can you guys order food? I don’t think I can cook today,” he called behind him as he vanished inside his room.

Both Donghyuk and Jisoo automatically smiled at Chanwoo’s direction as they heard the closing of Yunhyeong’s room.

“Fine.” Chanwoo sighed in defeat as he picks his phone from his pocket.

Yunhyeong might have gotten away for now but Jisoo still has one of the key players beside her. So far, the ball was rolling without much forceful intervention from her surprisingly. As cheesy as it sounds, it almost seemed like it was meant to happen. All she needed to do now was to ensure that the ball will have enough momentum to roll on its own then what was left for her to do was to buy popcorn and trendy shades and watch everything unfold in front of her.

Turning her attention to the sullen guy on her side, Jisoo asked, “So… Bobby, where are we again?”

Bobby was quiet for a moment before he slowly raised his head and met Jisoo’s gaze with an unbridled fire on his eyes. Then, he said something in a low firm voice that made all the three of them flabbergasted.

“I think I don’t like that Kim Hanbin.”

Jisoo didn’t know how long she was gaping at Bobby before she recovered from the shock. But on the moment that she did, she couldn’t help but laugh hysterically with the sudden unexpected development and turn to Donghyuk and Chanwoo with a triumphant look on her face.

Donghyuk raised both of his hand in defeat and smirked at her. “The bet is on then.”

~0~

Bobby was quite confounded how his ordinary and banal day ended up with an eventful evening. He always thought that he had already get the hang of the spontaneity of Yunhyeong’s friend but tonight was clear proof that he could really not know what to expect whenever the crash in to Yunhyeong’s apartment especially with Jisoo. The woman was like a pandoras box of surprises and confusing enigma. She always seemed to be plotting a rebellion or coup or something to defy the laws of physical universe. It was the reason that Bobby would always be low key scared of her. Tonight, however, Bobby could not deny the fact that Jisoo seemed to be subtly helping him in her own strange ways especially with matters involving Yunhyeong and this atypical feeling he has. 

“When did you two become close?” Yunhyeong asked casting half-curious and half-doubtful glances between Bobby and Jisoo. They were just right outside of the apartments door to send the squad off but Donghyuk and Chanwoo were already out in the hallway.

“We’re closer than you think, Yunhyeong-ie. I’ve been dropping by here when you’re out for work,” Jisoo looked at Bobby with a sly smile, “I guess I’ll be dropping more often from now on.”

With one last goodbye, Bobby watched Jisoo kissed Yunhyeong on his cheek before turning to him and leaned in so close that he almost thought she will also kiss him but she just whispered something that annoyed him because it was the truth.

“Bet you wish you could that.”

Then, she was gone like a tornado, leaving Bobby in disarray of emotions he didn’t know he was capable of feeling.

Bobby caught Yunhyeong’s eyes staring at him questioningly as if asking him what Jisoo said to him. But Bobby knew he could not really tell that Yunhyeong because he could bare understood what was happening himself. Also, he was somehow annoyed at Yunhyeong because of Kim Hanbin guy for some reason he could not name.

“Is there a problem, Bobby?” Yunhyeong voiced out when Bobby stood there in silence.

“Nothing.” Bobby shook his head and went back inside the apartment and started to clean up the take outs that they had for dinner. He busied himself cleaning up the table and picking up the fruits that Jisoo brought and put them all in their place in the kitchen all the while Yunhyeong was observing him in concern.

“Why are you so oddly quiet?”

Bobby heard Yunhyeong asked behind him as he was washing up the plates on the sink. He paused for a moment and thought about the things that Jisoo told him while Yunhyeong was washing up to which she had dubbed as the ‘Secret Ways to get the Magic Doughnut’. Up to this point, Bobby was not sure how did Jisoo came up with that name but Bobby could not deny that everything that Jisoo told him made a lot of sense.

“It’s just…” Bobby sighed, turning off the faucet. He wheeled back at face Yunhyeong. “I’m wondering why Jisoo can kiss you.”

Yunhyeong furrowed his brows. “It’s because we’re… best friends but it had no other meaning. It’s just Jisoo likes to do that stuffs.”

“Then if we became best friend can I kiss you too?”

“Uh, Bobby…” Yunhyeong scratched an imaginary itch on his flustering cheek. “I don’t think that how it works. I mean…”

“Why? Why is it ok for Jisoo but not for me?” Bobby interjected. “Is it because we’re both guys again?” Bobby remembered the what Yunhyeong said when they went out to buy groceries, that it was not normal for guys to hold hands. Why there were so many things that was not normal for both guys to do.

“No. No, Bobby. It’s just that… you should only kiss someone that you really like.”

“But I like you.”

“Not that kind of like. You like me because you’re grateful that I saved you and taking care of you.” Yunhyeong explained. “What I mean is, someone you have strong feelings for.”

“Feelings…”

Yunhyeong smiled and moved closer to him. “Yeah, someone you want to be with all the time. Someone that make you feel happy and you want to be happy with. Someone that will accept you for who you are, good and bad. Someone special. You should reserve all your kisses to that person Bobby-ya. Although even if you have that person you cannot just kiss them all of the sudden. Liking is one thing and liking you back is another thing. Ok?”

_ Someone you want to be with all the time.  _

_ Yunhyeong. _

_ Someone that make you feel happy and you want to be happy with. _

_ Yunhyeong. _

_ Someone that will accept you for who you are, good and bad. _

_ Yunhyeong. _

_ Someone special _

_ Yunhyeong. _

So, this was what Jisoo meant of knowing where he stands. It finally dawned to Bobby what was the gnawing warm feeling on his chest and tickling knot on his stomach with just simple thought of Yunhyeong or the clear sound of his voice, or when he would hold his hand. It was the strong feeling that Yunhyeong was talking about. It’s where Bobby stood.

“And don’t listen to whatever Jisoo tell you, her brain is wired differently than the rest of us.”

“But you still like her anyway.”

Yunhyeong chuckled lightly. “There’s different kinds of liking someone, Bobby-ya. Jisoo is like my sister from another mother.”

“Then what about me?” Bobby lifted his reaching gaze and met Yunhyeong’s dark orbs. “Do you... do you even like me?”

There was a flicker of light on Yunhyeong’s eyes as he paused in mild surprise. It was so fleeting that Bobby almost missed it. But right that instant, on that iota of a second, Bobby knew where Yunhyeong stood. 

_ Liking is one thing and liking you back is another thing. _

“Of course! I do. But it’s—”

“It’s ok that’s enough,” Bobby cut Yunhyeong off with a disarming smile. Next time Bobby would make sure that there will be no more ‘but’ on that sentence. He would make sure that the two of them would be on the same page, standing in the same place with that the same strong feeling.

“That’s enough for now.”

~0~

Author’s Note:

First, please bear with my poor attempt of humor here. LOL

Also, I would like to add more YunBin crumbs in this chapter but it YunBob + the squad scenes turned out longer than I initially expected. So, I’ll put it on the next one.

What do you think will happen on YunBob’s Saturday getaway? Hmmm. 

Anyways, let me know what you think and please ignore all writing mistakes as always.

Stay safe and healthy!

~Milkfish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> First, please bear with my poor attempt of humor here. LOL
> 
> Also, I would like to add more YunBin crumbs in this chapter but it YunBob + the squad scenes turned out longer than I initially expected. So, I’ll put it on the next one.
> 
> What do you think will happen on YunBob’s Saturday getaway? Hmmm. 
> 
> Anyways, let me know what you think and please ignore all writing mistakes as always.
> 
> Stay safe and healthy!
> 
> ~Milkfish


	12. Black Box

** Entangled XII – Black Box **

* * *

~0~

_ In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an engine, an algorithm, the human brain, an institution or government. _

~0~

Yunhyeong let out long string of air as he gets off the bus after almost missing his stop. He was still unusually early though after a quick glance at his wrist watch especially for a Friday. Yunhyeong observed that the clock in rule on his new company was a little loose with which most of the employees liked to exploit every Friday. Maybe he should let himself missed his stop, Yunhyeong thought with an ounce of regret. A short walk sounds a brilliant idea to get his mind off things that has been distracting him lately. He had no idea why he was distracted with the how things were going at home, especially with Bobby. It was not like there was some paradigm shifting event that happened lately but somehow Yunhyeong could not help but something feels different and he was confused of whatever it was. Or he was just overthinking things like he always does. He was no stranger on stressing himself by thinking too much. It was actually one of the few things he does really well although it was not something to be proud of. _Or maybe it was just the weather_ , Yunhyeong surmised, squinting away from the heated glare of early morning sun reflecting from the gigantic facade of tinted windows of the company building. Spring was almost over and based from Yunhyeong’s track record, change in season also meant a big change for him and changes were never his forte.

_ Yeah, it was probably just the weather. _ Dusting off his dress pants, Yunhyeong shook his head and get on his way, planning to bury the chaos in his head with the pandemonium of paper works waiting for him at his cube.

Being earlier than usual especially on a Friday, Yunhyeong was not even a little bit surprised when there were barely any other employees in the usually crowded ground floor of the building. After tapping his ID card on turnstile, he made a beeline to one of the elevators, his footfalls echoing in a hollowed tone against the polished floor. Not having to wait in line for the elevator and having it for himself are the main reasons that Yunhyeong never mind coming for work early and that of course he could have the whole pantry for himself and drink his coffee in peace. With that self-appeasing prospect in his mind, the distinct ring of the shaft’s door sliding open soon came not long after he pressed the up button. But Yunhyeong found himself abruptly stopping midway the threshold as soon as he saw no other than Kim Hanbin staring back at him with mouth slightly hanging open paired with wide eyes that he was sure he also had on his face.

The high-pitched buzz of the door sensor was the nudged that Yunhyeong needed to tear his gaze away and fully went inside. “Director Kim,” he mumbled in a low voice with a quick bow before positioning himself at the opposite end of the elevator.

The next few seconds were the longest one that Yunhyeong felt in all of his days riding a damn elevator as the door hang wide open waiting for anyone else on the floor. Curse his luck, no one else came in and sound of the closing doors never felt so claustrophobic that he had to fight the urge to stuck his hand out and get out. The steady hum of mechanical work hangs in the air choking them with tensed silence while they attempt to glue their gazes in the metallic surface of the elevator shaft. The door once dinged and open on the second floor only to show no one else there that almost made him cursed under his breath. Where are all those people when Yunhyeong needed them. He was getting antsy of just how long this elevator ride would stretch out. He was not even sure why he felt awkward with Kim Hanbin right now. After what happened on his visit yesterday, they should be in the clear.

When they hit the third floor, Yunhyeong knew he needed to say something before he ended up banging his head into the wall.

“Are you—”

“About yesterday—”

Yunhyeong winced at he caught Hanbin’s gaze from the corner of his eyes. At least he wasn’t the only one feeling the awkwardness. 

“You can go first.” Hanbin’s voice lack the usual annoying dapper and Yunhyeong wondered if he had fully recovered to be here right now.

Yunhyeong cleared his throat. “I just want to ask if it’s ok for you to be here right now. You’re still pretty out of it yesterday.” They were on the fifth floor now. Four more to go.

“I’m all good now… it’s just that the cold medicine makes me really sleepy.” Hanbin paused and continue in softly that it almost sounded like a whisper. “And about the food yesterday… thanks.”

Yunhyeong side-glanced at Hanbin. It was his first time seeing his boss like this. He was usually radiating with confidence and never seemed to be embarrassed about anything with his almost perpetual annoying smirk and cunning eyes.

“Oh? It’s nothing.” Yunhyeong waved him off before looking a little embarrassed. “Sorry that I used your kitchen without your permission. I don’t—”

“I don’t mind.” Hanbin met his eyes with a small smile curling on his lips. “The soup was really good by the way. I ate it well.”

It was a sincere smile that made Hanbin softer against the white fluorescent light and for a moment he looked like a sweet innocent child. A far cry from his usual aura of haughty playfulness. Yunhyeong couldn’t help but to think that it suits him more than his typical impish smile. 

“Really?” Yunhyeong blinked away reigning down the small flush on his cheek for staring too long.

“Yeah?”

“Is that your answer or are you asking me?” Yunhyeong turned to Hanbin, eyebrows raised. “You seem unsure.”

Hanbin shook his head, panic clouding his expression for a moment. “No. I mean it’s delicious really,” he said meeting Yunhyeong’s eyes. “So, yeah.”

They both stared at each other’s eyes for a moment before flinching away as if they touched fire. 

“Uh, thanks.”

“About the note—”

The elevator dinged and the robotic voice announcing the floor number cut them off. _Ninth floor_. They have arrived. The elevator slides open revealing Ms. Dara who did not even attempt to hide her surprise and eventual sly smile as she eyed the two of them. _Could this day get any worse? Yunhyeong thought defeatedly._

“Hello, Ms. Dara.” Yunhyeong bowed politely, purposely ignoring the situation for the hope that his manage would do the same.

Ms. Dara greeted him back before turning to Kim Hanbin. “Welcome back Director Kim,” she said.

Hanbin straightened up and nodded curtly.

“Are you two ok? Why are your faces so red?” Ms. Dara asked. 

The question made Yunhyeong turned to Hanbin who did the same to him. Their gazes met again and Yunhyeong winced away, as soon as he saw the tinged of pink on Hanbin’s cheek and ears. He saw Hanbin doing the same because Yunhyeong was sure that his face was just in the same shade of crimson.

Ms. Dara sighed and schooled her expression with a reproachful look and wiggled her index finger as if they were children caught doing something they shouldn’t. “I hope that you two didn’t do anything _questionable_ here… you know that there’s CCTV camera up there, hm?” She pointed at the black semi-spherical thing on the top corner of the elevator.

“W-what? What are you talking about Ms. Dara?” Yunhyeong choked out, chuckling nervously. He hurriedly steps out of the elevator and bowed to both his superiors before any of them could say anything. “I have to go,” he said with a quick glance at his wrist. “I need to prepare for a meeting.” 

Ms. Dara hummed. “But you don’t have any meetings today.”

Yunhyeong gaped at his manager with eyes full of betrayal. “It’s for next week,” he said before quickly turning around to hide his embarrassment and high- tailed it out there to save whatever remains of his dignity he had in him.

~0~

Hanbin was rarely bothered by being caught in an awkward situation. He was never troubled when Jinhwan once walked in on him in his apartment once or twice or when Jenny found his secret stash of porn when he was a teenager with raging hormones. Hanbin just shrug all those instances off because he had learned early that fussing over things like that would never make any difference. He had been in far too much disconcerting circumstances for a run-of-the-mill uncomfortable elevator ride to matter much. But earlier today, it somehow did and mind you, he had been in a countless awkward elevator situation before but the tension was never so palpable that he was overwhelmed by how foreign it was. He felt restless, shy and embarrassed all together but still feel good in some strange way. 

Is it because it was with Yunhyeong?

But Hanbin had been in a much more compromising situation with Yunhyeong before and that was even in front of his friends. _So, why was the incident this morning any different? Maybe because of what happened yesterday? Of the note? Or most likely because Hanbin doesn’t know where they stood now._ He hated having nagging questions on the top of his head since he has always been sure of everything and maybe that was why he found himself here in their floor’s fire exit after Ms. Dara unsubtly hinted that Yunhyeong was probably hiding there.

With a deep breath, Hanbin gently push the door wide enough for him to slip through and finally there was Yunhyeong. He was leaning against the bannister, his back to Hanbin, staring off the busy streets below through the glass wall.

“So, this is where you hide,” Hanbin said.

Yunhyeong whirled around, startled by the sudden intrusion. “Director Kim? What are you doing here?”

Hanbin walked towards the unoccupied side of the bannister, wrapping his hands around it as he eyed the typical lunch hour traffic from nine stories above the ground. “I’m looking for you,” he said after he settled.

“Why?”

The flatness on Yunhyeong’s voice made Hanbin tore his gaze-off of the chaos below and met his eyes. For the first time today, Hanbin finally had a good look on Yunhyeong’s face. He was staring at him with weary eyes but not with frustration of dealing with him. He just looked tired and sleep deprived with a swollen eyes and dark lines forming around it. The corners of his mouth seemed to droop and his face dulled out of its usual brightness. Hanbin was suddenly hit by wave of guilt when he realized that his absence at work might have put a lot of pressure to the poor guy. He heard from Ms. Dara that the guy was putting up a lot of hours during the days he was absent.

Hanbin blinked-off his thoughts breaking the eye contact when Yunhyeong cocked his head, still waiting for his answer.

“Well… you’re not with Lisa and Ms. Dara and they told me that you haven’t had your lunch yet.” He bit his lower lip, gripping and ungrasping the handrails with now sweaty hand. “So, I was wondering since you’re not with them and it just happened that I haven’t had my lunch too… I was thinking that maybe… we could eat together?”

And there it was again. The same tangible tension, the suffocating silence hanging in the air that made his insides twist in a funny way as he waited for Yunhyeong to say something. Hanbin did not understand how he ended up saying what he said out of the things he had in mind.

“I mean, you can say that it’s my way of apologizing for being gone and having you do a lot of heavy lifting for the project so…” Hanbin massaged the back of his neck as the blood slowly rush up to his cheeks. “Yeah. that and to thank you for yesterday…”

Hanbin was starting to hear the beating of his heart on his ears as the seconds pass with Yunhyeong only staring at him with impassive eyes. Then Yunhyeong started to shook and then he laughed. It was loud but not boisterous and annoying to the ears. It was melodic and warm as the coming spring. Hanbin stood dumbstruck as the soft lilt of Yunhyeong’s laughter echoed within the dreary wall of the fire exit and tears formed in corner of his eyes. Hanbin felt himself relaxed, releasing a massive volume of air he had been holding, wondering how nice it would be to hear that kind of laughter every day. 

“You’re being weird you know that?” Yunhyeong chuckled, almost out of breath. “Are you really like this?”

“No.” Hanbin lowered his gaze face heating up. “It’s just… I don’t even know if you remember, but yesterday—”

“I remember everything yesterday.”

“You do?” Hanbin tried his best not to sound too hopeful but he couldn’t deny how he miserably failed in doing so. When he lifted his gaze, Yunhyeong was not looking at him anymore. He was staring off at the distance just like the way when he found him here but now with a small curl at corner of his lips.

“I do. So, please stop being weird and act like as you normally would.” Yunhyeong turned to him with smirk. “I can handle that version of you much better.”

Hanbin blinked owlishly before grinning so wide that it hurt his cheeks. He turned towards the glass walls and rest his forearms against the rails. “So, about lunch?”

“I’m hiding here because I don’t want to hear those two teasing me about you, you know. Imagine when they see us eating together.” Yunhyeong scoffed.

Hanbin studied Yunhyeong at his peripheral vision. “Does that bother you?” He asked in a quiet voice.

“What?” Yunhyeong turned to him eyebrows furrowed.

“Does teasing you about me bother you?” Hanbin met his eyes evenly.

Yunhyeong seemed to contemplate about it for a moment before looking away. “Not really… I know they meant no harm but they’ve been on my neck since this morning. I just want a short while of peace and quiet that’s why I’m hiding here and…” Yunhyeong paused, glancing at him. “And it’s not like what they thought are true anyway.”

“What’s not true, you liking me or me liking you?”

“Both?”

“Is that your answer or are you asking me? You seem unsure.” Hanbin smirked, echoing what Yunhyeong said in the elevator.

“Both.” Yunhyeong deadpanned.

Hanbin chuckled and no sooner as it died down, silence dawn upon the two of them like the fall of the velvet curtain at the end of a play. It was smooth and swift, easier and more comfortable this time around and Hanbin was very pleased with that progress.

“Shouldn’t these things bother you more than me? Being the director and chairman’s son and all.” Yunhyeong suddenly asked in a curious voice. “There could be rumors.”

“It doesn’t bother me at all.” Hanbin shrugged. “Rumors came with the package of being the chairman’s son.”

Yunhyeong looked pensive for a moment before nodding slowly. “Most rumors aren’t true anyway.”

“Yeah, _just_ most of it.” Hanbin smiled. “Then, it doesn’t matter if we have lunch together, doesn’t it?”

~0~

If someone had told Yunhyeong that one day he would end up having lunch with Kim Hanbin, he would very much laugh so loud that his saliva would spray all over their faces. But who would have thought that he would be the one choking at his own spit as he sat across Hanbin with large bowl of soft tofu stew and several other dishes between them? This has to be some alternate reality, right? Yunhyeong thought in disbelief.

“I know I’m handsome but you should eat. The food’s gonna get cold. You can stare as long as you want later.” Hanbin quipped. He cut a big chunk of vegetable pan cake and put in Yunhyeong’s bowl. “Try it. It’s good.”

So much for alternate reality, Yunhyeong sighed to himself. Ignoring the jibe, he picks up his chopstick and started to eat. “You’ve been here before?” He asked after a while.

“Countless times. This is a popular place among the company employee.” 

Yunhyeong suddenly froze on his spot, nervousness churning in his stomach. He silently berated himself for letting his guard down. His eyes darted around his surroundings for any familiar faces in the restaurant, hoping that Ms. Dara or Lisa ate somewhere else today. He was not ready to have them pulling his leg again. Odds were in his favor this time around that although he spotted couple of people wearing the company’s lanyard, Yunhyeong did not recognize any of them.

Easing up on his sit, Yunhyeong gave Hanbin a noncommittal glance. “Never would have thought,” he mumbled.

“What?” Hanbin clutched his chest with his free hand, wide eyed and offended. “Do you think I’m one of those snobby rich people who only eat at 5-star restaurants?” 

“I never said that.”

“But you were implying it. Are you always this judgmental or is it just with me? Here I thought we’re going to be best of friends from now on.”

“If you turned out to be one of those people there’s no way, you’d want to be friend with me in the first place.” Yunhyeong snorted.

“Too bad for you, huh?” Hanbin wiggled his eyebrows, smirking. “I turned out to be a ball of sunshine blessed with money and good look.”

Yunhyeong coughed, almost choking on his food. He grabbed the glass of water from the table and gulp it down. “That’s so cringy,” he groused once he recovered but Hanbin only chuckled before getting back to his rice bowl.

It’s weird that just a few days ago, Yunhyeong could not stand to be in Hanbin’s presence for more than a minute before his fuse blow up. He’s annoying, arrogant and has an unhealthy fixation on ruffling Yunhyeong’s feathers whenever it was convenient for him. But after yesterday and the things that happened today, Yunhyeong was starting to see different sides of Kim Hanbin he never thought were there. Not that it made Hanbin less annoying though. Yunhyeong would have to accept that part as it is.

Yunhyeong’s musings was cut off when he felt his phone buzzed. He fished it out of his pocket and there was a message from Bobby. Yunhyeong could not stop the silly grin curling on his lips when he saw what Bobby sent him. It was an out-of-focus picture of Bobby grinning in the camera and short message that says, _‘I know your busy, Hyeong-ie. But don’t skip your meals, ok?’._

“Is that Bobby?”

Yunhyeong looked up from his phone to see Hanbin staring at him intently. Blinking in confusion, he asked, “How do you know Bobby?”

“I might’ve heard him once from Jinhwan hyung.” Hanbin mumbled. “But that’s all I know.”

Yunhyeong nodded slowly, lowering his gaze. “He’s just… someone.”

“Someone special I guess.” 

“No! Well, yeah. He’s special but not like what you think. He’s like…” Yunhyeong was not entirely sure why he almost sounded in panic or why he hesitated. What is Bobby to him? A friend? A sibling? They have been living together for a while now but that part of their relationship was still a giant box, he was too afraid to open for some reason. 

“You could say that I’m like his guardian,” Yunhyeong finally said.

“A guardian? So, he’s a kid?”

Yunhyeong thought about it, taking him back to the time when they went out to buy groceries and clothes and the feeling of Bobby’s hand on his, the time when they looked at the cakes with wonder on their eyes, those times when Bobby would hover around him every time he was cooking and asking him all sort of mundane stuffs, and all those times a pair of arms hang around his neck when he got home.

_ Yunhyeong suddenly wondered why was he so scared of opening the box in the first place… _

“You could say that,” Yunhyeong sighed, smiling softly. “He’s like a kid.”

_ And that maybe… he should see what’s inside nonetheless. _

~0~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> Finally, I’m back! I don’t know if anyone is still reading this so… Anyway, updates will still be sporadic but rest assured that I’m not abandoning this story especially now that there’s a lot of IKON contents coming our way. 
> 
> Stay safe everyone! See you on the next chapter!
> 
> ~Milkfish


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